Steven 294
by TheHawk5476
Summary: After being stranded in the Halo Universe Steven 294 begins a new life in the Spartan III Programme. Now featuring the origins of Noble team!
1. Chapter 1

**Boredom: February 15th 2012**

**Location: Great Britain, Earth**

As he sat there, listening to his english teacher drone on and on about poetic analysis and other, even more dull things, all Steven Richards knew was that he was bored. The lesson was just going on and on, the minutes dragging by painfully slowly. "Sir?" he asked, raising his hand, "I just realise I left my… text book in my locker, can I go and get it?"

Mr Drake rolled his eyes, "Yes, but any dawdling and you're staying in at break time."

Steven sighed internally, that was what Drake said every time anyone wanted to leave the room and he never went through with it. He stood up from his chair and left the room, being careful not to slam the door and irritate Drake further. He strolled down the corridor, looking out the windows to the side as he went, taking in the views of the forests outside.

Although he liked living out in the countryside with his ex-military father, his mother had died while he was still young and he had been brought up by his single father, sometimes Steven yearned for the chance to go to a city and just run wild. His father would never have allowed that though, it would interrupt their routine life. Wake up at six thirty for an hour run, get home, shower, have breakfast and then rush not to be late for the school bus.

While he sometime disliked the early morning exercise he had to admit one thing, it had got him in good shape, good enough to be in the school athletics team for the 100 metres, 1500 metres and the javelin. He didn't know why he'd asked to leave the classroom, he hadn't forgotten any of his books, he hadn't needed to go to the toilet. He decided it would be best to just go outside for moment, get some fresh air and try to get rid of his throbbing headache, courtesy of an overheated classroom.

As he rounded the corner he could see the exit ahead, a glimpse of freedom from the daily rigmarole of school. He pushed open the door and took a breath of fresh air, it was cold but that just made it all the more refreshing. He looked left and right, just to check that no teachers were going to question what he was doing out of lessons.

It was then that something caught his eye, a faint glowing from just around the corner of the building. His interest piqued, he went down the steps and made for the corner to investigate. As he rounded the corner he saw something he never thought possible, it was almost like a window, but not quite, it seemed warped around the edges and sounds unlike any he had heard before could be heard through it.

He reached forward with one hand to touch whatever it was. Whatever he had expected it to feel like, it wasn't what he got. It didn't feel as if it was there at all, his hand just passed through with no change in feeling. Slowly, carefully, he moved more of his arm into it until it was up to his shoulder. "Weird" he thought to himself as he moved his hand around, suddenly he heard a shout from behind him, "Hey, what are you doing out of lessons?", Steven turned around, striding over from the car park was Mr Garson, the one teacher at the school everyone feared.

Panic came over him at the sight of the teacher and Steven took as step forward, his shin knocking into the bottom edge of the thing and he stumbled, falling through and into a heap on the other side. He coughed and wiped his eyes trying to clear the dust from them.

He looked around him, he was in a dark alleyway, a building towered up next to him. He rolled over to look back at where he had come from and he got the shock of his life, the thing was gone.

**Where am I?: Date Unknown**

**Location: Unknown**

The first thing Steven noticed as he awoke was that his headache was finally gone. As he opened his eyes they were greeted by a harsh light, he lifted his arm to cover his eyes, the action agonizing. He groaned slightly as his eyes slowly got used to the light. He looked around him, everything was white, the walls, the ceiling, the floor. It reminded him of the hospital room he had stayed in when he had his appendix removed.

He heard footsteps coming over to his and he looked to see who it was. The man looked around 50, greying and he had dark bags under his eyes. "Stay where you are son, you had a nasty fall." he said, the voice was as kindly the man's eyes.

"Where am I?" groaned Steven, trying to find a window to look through, to no avail.

"You're onboard the UNSC _Hopeful_, you were found unconscious in an alleyway back on Biko, you're lucky to be alive. If a few Marines hadn't gotten lost and come across you, you'd be burnt to a cinder." It took several moments for Steven's brain to process what he had been told and then it ground to a halt. "What?", he yelled, "The UNSC? What the fuck, no way am I in the Halo universe, this has to be some kind of joke, did someone put you up to this? Who are you?" his words came out rushed and panicked, how could he be on the UNSC _Hopeful_? That ship was fictional just like everything in Halo, it was just a game.

"Calm down." the doctor said slowly, taking a step back, "You had a nasty fall and you clearly aren't thinking straight, I'm Doctor Gorman, Chief Medical officer on the _Hopeful_, what's your name?"

Steven gulped, "Stev-Steven Richards." he gasped out.

"Well then Steven, you just lie back and get some rest, it's for the best. Doctor's orders." the older man smiled and turned to leave.

Steven's brain was running in overload, how could this be real? He must have fallen asleep in class and this was all a dream, he forcefully pinched himself and winced, nope not a dream. He rolled over and lay there facing the wall, just thinking about what he could do, he was after all only thirteen years old.

From behind him he could hear more footsteps, much quieter than the doctor had been. He turned over again to face the source, stood before him was another boy, slightly younger than him. Steven smiled at him, he didn't smile back.

"Hi, my name's Steven, what's yours?" he asked, he felt like and idiot, he had no idea who this guy was and he was talking to him like an idiot. "My name's Carter, I heard you yelling, did you lose your parents on Biko too?" the boy's voice was strong, despite the fact that he must have just lost his parents. "No", Steven replied, "my mum died a long time ago and I don't know when I'll see my dad again, he's a long way away." It felt strange to say those words but it was true, he may never see his father again if he was stuck in the Halo universe, would he even survive?

Suddenly, for the second time in a few minutes, his brain ground to a halt again. "Wait, did you say your name was Carter?" he asked, and the other boy nodded, "Oh my god", thought Steven, "Could this be _the_ Carter?" he remembered the legendary leader of Noble Team had come from Biko.

The two boys had been placed in a double room, maybe since they were fairly young they didn't want them to be kept around the more critically injured passengers. Then, there was a knock at the door and it slid open, revealing the tall frame of a man with light brown short cut hair and dark eyes and the silver eagle insignia of a Colonel on his green uniform. He stepped into the room, an ODST to either side of him. Steven suddenly felt very small next to these six foot soldiers in battle armour. "Hello there, my name is Colonel Ackerson", he paused and turned to the ODSTs and motioned for them to exit, once they had done so he continued, "I gather neither of you have any parents to speak of?" he asked.

Both children shook their heads. "And did you both lose them to the Covenant?" he asked, only Carter nodded his head. Ackerson looked to Steven, "How did your parents die then?" he asked, his voice frosty, "My mother died a long time ago after she got sick, my father is a soldier, still alive but I don't know where he is."

Ackerson smiled slightly, a cruel smile, "Well young man, I regret to inform you that your father was killed during combat against the Covenant not long ago. Now since you have both lost family to them, would I be right to think that maybe you want some payback?"

Carter nodded and smiled grimly, Steven knew Ackerson was a lier bit if he called his bluff it would raised some serious questions. The Colonel smiled "I thought so, if you come with me, I will take you, and others like you and mould you mould you into the best soldiers over seen and then give you the chance to avenge the death of you families. Assuming you agree to come."

Carter stood up straighter and said "I want to come, the Covenant will pay for what the did."

The Colonel smiled again, he looked like a predator whenever he did that, Steven thought. Ackerson the turned his attention back to Steven, "And you, will you come too and become the best we can make you?"

Then Steven realised what this way, Ackerson was trying to recruit him to become a Spartan III, one of the sacrificial Spartans, but then he thought, if I don't join, what happens? I drift from planet to planet as a refugee always running for the Covenant.

He raised his head to look Ackerson in the face, "I'll do it."


	2. Chapter 2

**Spartan III: April 29th 2531**

**Location: Onboard UNSC _Atlas_, En route to Onyx**

As he gazed out of the window Steven couldn't believe he had been in the Halo universe for over a month. Things had whirled along, as it happened he and Carter had been the first two Spartan candidates to be collected by Ackerson and so they were left aboard the carrier, _Atlas_ as Ackerson went around collecting the others.

Thanks to them being left with a lot of time on their hands and a wish not to enter cryogenic suspension Steven and Carter had gotten to know each other fairly well, he learnt that even before Ackerson had come along Carter had wanted a military life the Colonel had simply provided him with the opportunity of a lifetime. Steven had done his best to fabricate his past life, while he had mentioned that his mother was dead, which was perfectly true, he didn't mention that he was from Earth or that he was from another universe. Mentioning that could have meant he was sent for a psychiatric analysis.

He had also gotten to know a few of the others, particularly Kai, Emile and Jun. The five boys had formed a tight knit group, later joined by the group's only girl, Maria. Kai was from Eridanus II as was Emile, Jun was from New Harmony and Maria originated from Harvest.

Despite being from a wide range of planets the six of them all had one thing in common, at least on paper, they had all lost their families to the Covenant and they all wanted payback. To Steven's surprise Emile was nothing like the violent shock trooper he had known from Reach, he was a much more relaxed person and openly admitted that he was breaking his vow of pacifism in becoming a soldier.

Steven had to wonder, what had happened to Emile that changed him so radically. Jun was much like his was in the game and Carter, though he seemed less battle hardened, understandable since he was only eleven, was already a born leader. Kai was in fact more like Emile would one day become, he was always looking for a fight. His main problem was his height, he was the shortest of the group but would practically assault anyone who mentioned it. Maria was different though. She was calm, concentrated and, despite losing her family to them, displayed no real hatred of the Covenant, at least openly.

All in all Steven was content with the life he had now and, although he missed his old life, he was already becoming accepting of the fact that he may never be able to return home.

They had already been in slipspace for three days, on there way to what they had been told was to be their training camp, Onyx, he assumed.

Then, totally unexpectedly the ship began to shudder and he felt the tug of the ship rapidly decelerating, they had arrived. He turned back to the others who were already standing and looking around. The door at the far end of the bunk room slid open with a hiss and Ackerson stepped in. "Recruits!" he barked and everyone fell silent. "As you have no doubt realised we have arrived at our destination, you are to report immediately to the hangar where your Pelicans are waiting to take you to the surface. Move!"

There was a flurry of movement as everyone scrambled off their beds and charged for the exit, no one enjoyed long periods of time on board a ship. En masse they made their way down the corridor. Several ONI officers were forced to back down adjacent corridors, looks of surprise on their faces as one hundred children between eight and thirteen stampeded down the corridor.

Just as the first few were going through the door into the hangar the mob ground to an abrupt halt. "What's going on?" asked Jun from behind him, Steven turned around and shrugged before turning back. Slowly, the group started easing forwards through the door. When it came to be his turn to enter Steven saw what had caused the halt. Stood in the middle of the room wearing a Navy uniform and with an almost livid expression on his face was a Chief Petty Officer with greying hair and a cigar clamped in his mouth, Steven instantly twigged the identity of the man, CPO Mendez. His suspicion was confirmed as he came closer, being herded into formation by a handful of drill instructors. As the last few stragglers entered at the back and joined the formation Mendez cleared his throat, silence followed. Despite none of the children having had any past military training Mendez exuded enough authority to silence them all.

"What I just witnessed is the very reason why I decided to have all of you grouped in different hangars. If what just happened had been with the entire Company someone would have been killed. When you are onboard a military vessel you do not charge around like lunatics, getting in the way of senior officers and each other. Now, before us are five Pelicans, each one can take a group of twenty. You are arranged such that in each row there are twenty recruits, you will now board you Pelicans in neat order, one row at a time and if anyone steps out of line there'll be hell to pay. Understood?" Mendez's voice finally fell silent only to be replaced by a chorus of "Yes Sirs." none of which were in time but the look on Mendez's face was resigned to the fact that he couldn't expect perfection… yet.

Once the last group had boarded their Pelicans Mendez clambered aboard the one Steven and the other five were on, along with fourteen other recruits Steven barely knew. Mendez walked right past them and into the cockpit to give the pilot the order to get them going.

The rear hatch swung shut with a clunk and a hiss as it sealed then, from outside, the roar of the engines firing up, along with those of the other four Pelicans could be heard, muffled through the hull. The motion of the Pelican lifting off and then easing out through the airlock made Steven nervous, it was his first space flight in anything smaller than a carrier that he had been conscious for after all.

There was a lurch as the Pelican exited the artificial gravity of the _Atlas_ and began to descend towards the planet below. He watched intently through the thick window as the heat of reentry sent thin wavers of heat off the stubby wings of the Pelican, then they were through the atmosphere and hurtling towards the planet below. He could just make out the slight shape of a camp below which got steadily bigger as the neared it.

The cockpit door opened and Mendez entered the troop compartment, "You boys and girls are the lucky ones. Our Pelican will be the first to land so you are going to have to start of formation like the one we did on the _Atlas_, once we land the door opens you will line up facing the main camp building in a perfectly straight line." The engine began to whine as the Pelican decelerated and finally came to a halt with a thump as it hit the ground.

The rear door hissed again as the internal pressure equalized with that outside and then it swung down to provide the twenty children with an exit. They jogged down the ramp looking around for the biggest building, it was right ahead. They ran forward and formed a straight line facing forwards. "Don't look behind you when the others arrive." ordered Mendez and indeed, as each Pelican landed and the other recruits joined on behind no one turned their heads.

They just stood their in silence as Mendez walked around to the front and then continued on past them, heading for the main building. The doors at the front of the main compound slid open and the figure that exited took Steven's breath away. A seven foot tall figure in full mjolnir armour strode out and greeted Mendez who snapped off a crisp salute. At that distance Steven didn't have a chance of hearing what they said so he just stood in silence.

As the mjolnir clad figure approached a murmur of shock spread through the crowd. "My name is Lieutenant Commander Ambrose. I am in command of Camp Curahee and your training. You are here to become the best we can make you, to become the cream of the UNSC, you will become Spartans." He paused for breath "This will only happen, though, if you can prove to me and, more importantly Chief Mendez and the drill instructors that you are ready to make the commitment to the Spartan way of life. You will reboard your Pelicans now and be briefed over the comm by Chief Mendez of your test. Fall out!"

Mendez walked forward once again a yelled, "That means get back on your Pelican. Now!" There was a scramble as everyone run back to their Pelicans, marginally more organized then back on the _Atlas_ since each row headed to one Pelican and they knew where to go.

Once they were back onboard there Pelican Steven turned to the other, "What do you think the test is?" he asked, despite the fact he already knew thanks to reading the Ghosts of Onyx. Carter shrugged "Maybe they'll just leave us outside tonight to fend for ourselves, good test to see if we can handle ourselves." Maria shivered slightly and shot Carter a look, she was not as ready for a military lifestyle as Carter.

Mendez reboarded the Pelican and it instantly lifted off, this time the rear hatch didn't swing shut. "Under each of your seats there is a small black package, pull this out now." he ordered, and everyone did so. "Unwrap your packages." he ordered, his voice sounded almost charged with excitement, "That is a standard issue parachute, you will jump out of the back of this Pelican is you want to become a Spartan. Put your parachutes on, then when it's your turn to jump wait ten seconds then pull the chord. Use the handles to angle yourself as close to the camp as you can. You, your up first." he said, pointing to Kai.

Kai stood up, pulled on the parachute and ran straight out the back of the Pelican, hurtling away in the wind. "Your next." Mendez ordered, pointing to Maria. She stood up hesitantly, slowly pulling her parachute on. Slowly made her way to the exit and looked out, "You can do it!" Emile called out. Everyone heard her take in a loud breath and then jumped, letting all the air out as a scream as she too vanished into the darkness.

"Now you." Mendez ordered, now pointing to Steven. He gulped and stood, shakily pulling on the parachute, "Come on mate." said Carter, patting him on the back. Steven smiled hesitantly and made his way to the rear of the Pelican. He gripped the side of the Pelican with an vice grip and willed himself to jump but his legs failed him. Suddenly he felt a hand on his back and then a forceful shove. He looked back just in time to see Jun wave him goodbye.

Jun turned to the others and shrugged his shoulders, "He'll thank me later."

**Name?: April 29th 2531**

**Location: Camp Curahee, Surface of Onyx**

All three hundred members of the Spartan IIIs were congregated in the camp's central barracks, a cavernous room filled with bunks going up tiers. Steven and his friends had managed to be some of the first to enter the room and so had managed to get two bunks between them in one of the corners. An ideal location.

As they had arrived back at the base from the jump they had each been handed a steel footlocker and were told to carry it to their bunks, no mercy was given to those unable to carry their own. If they couldn't carry it, they had to drag it.

Steven had been lucky, his extreme fitness regime at the hands of his father served him well and he managed to carry the footlocker without too much difficulty. Being the member of the group with the least strength Maria had been helped by Emile to carry her locker in.

Once they had all got settled they turned to their lockers, each one was identical from the outside, much like the Spartans themselves would some day be when clad in their armour. Inside each was a person toiletries kit and several uniforms. One set of grey fatigues, one set of very small dress uniform and one set of grey tracksuits. Each one had a name and number stenciled on the front.

The group pulled off their clothes and put on the fatigues, the compared what their numbers. Maria-A194, Kai-A019, Jun-A266, Emile-A239, Carter-A259 and Steven- A294


	3. Chapter 3

**Beta Squad: June 3rd 2531**

**Location: Camp Curahee, Surface of Onyx**

"Welcome back to camp recruits, your survival training in the mountains was just the beginning of what you will learn but first, we can cannot train as one company, three hundred is simply too many to manage at once. Therefore you will be divided into teams of six and trained in groups of three teams." As always Mendez's voice rang out over the entire amphitheater. Steven looked nervously to the other five in what would be his preferred team, they each smiled back grimly.

"You will now divide up into the same groups of one hundred you had for your survival training, you will then be split down further into individual squads of six, hand picked by myself and Lieutenant Commander Ambrose. Once you have been assigned a team leave and move your possessions from the barracks you are currently staying in to the larger ones on the other side of the base where each squad will have it's own room. Now, get in your groups.

With almost no hint of the disorderly charging around that had been present just a few months ago everyone split up into the larger groups of a hundred and filed off into the antechambers to be assigned their teams. Steven, Carter, Emile, Jun and Maria had, so far, had to good fortune not to be split up by the constant division into manageable groups but they were all nervous about this particular selection, they had a very small chance of all being put in the same team.

Once they had all filed into the antechamber and taken their seats Mendez marched in a took his place at the lectern. "Alpha team will comprise as follows", he began, Steven crossed his fingers, "Shane-A107, Robert-A276, Jane-A299, Mark-A032, Kelly-A078 and Jeremy-A214. Fall out you six."

Mendez was silent as the group left the room, his steely gaze looking over the others. "Beta team will comprise of Carter-A259, Jun-A266, Kai-A019, Maria-A194, Emile-A239 and Steven-A294. You six, dismissed."

Just as they were leaving Mendez called, "259, come here for a moment." A look of fear crossed Carter's face as he turned and walked over, "I had to pull some strings to get you six put together, struck me as the kindest thing to do since you had all formed such a close knit group. Something like that will be vital to you in the future, don't make me regret my decision."

Carter nodded, did his best at a salute and turned to leave.

"What did he want?" asked Maria, turning to look back at Carter as they left.

"Nothing important." Carter replied, a broad grin across his face as he said it. The group walked out of the briefing centre and made their way across the scorched tarmac to the bunkhouse.

As they walked in they heard shouting from the far end of the room, as one they ran to investigate. As they came round the edge of a set of bunks they finally saw the source. Rolling around on the floor, punching and kicking each other were Shane and Robert.

Emile looked around anxiously to check fro trainers, they would all be in trouble if they were caught at the scene of a fight. "Steve, split them up." ordered Carter, he himself also heading over to try and stop the fight.

Steven reached down and managed to grab ahold of Shane's arm, the marginally smaller boy turned his head to look at him and then leapt forward, bring his fist up to smack him right across the jaw. Steven reeled back just as Jun came over to give him a hand while Maria did the same for Carter.

After several minutes of struggling they had finally calmed the two down enough to get them to talk. "Explain." ordered Carter, his arms crossed and a disapproving look on his face, already vaguely reminiscent of the leader he would soon become.

"We got into a fight." Shane said, unhelpfully, "Mendez put us in teams but never said who would be leader, he called me first so that makes me leader."

"No way", yelled Robert, his face red with rage, "we should be made leader based on our performance in the mountains."

Carter rolled his eyes, "Guys, if Mendez hans't chosen a team leader he's done it for a reason, he's not an idiot and if he saw you two fighting like this he'd probably make you join his for one of his _fun runs_." he chuckled at the last part, Mendez was well known for his favourite punishment, if someone misbehaved then they were invited to join him on one of his two hour runs, starting at five thirty. They were already legendary.

Both Shane and Robert lost a little of the colour in their faces and visibly relaxed. Carter released his grip on Robert and he slumped to the floor. Steven released Shane and he just stood there, head hung in shame.

"Come on Beta, get your stuff together, we'er leaving." ordered Carter. As they headed off Steven turned to Carter, "Yes Sir, Captain Carter!" he joked, giving him a mock salute. Carter grinned and bumped his shoulder with his fist.

The team busied themselves with packing up their things, no one had much since they had lost everything to the Covenant. Steven rummaged through the clothes he had worn when he arrived in the Halo universe, in one pocket was his watch, he had always had a habit of pocketing it rather than wear it, and in the other he found his wallet complete with ID and school library card.

He the wallet into his duffel bag and slipped the watch over his wrist, although it was just a cheap digital watch it was one of his last links to home. He would have to be careful though, if anyone came across his wallet ID he would some serious questions to answer, questions that could leave him in the hands of the Office of Naval Intelligence.

Having packed the last of their belongings Beta squad left the barracks and made their way over to the much larger barracks building, constructed specifically to house the Spartans.

As they entered a Corporal appeared from down a side corridor and guided them to their room. Located on the third floor the room provided views out across the scenery of Onyx but this would be of little concern to Beta since they would spend most of their time out in the scenery

**The Armoury: June 4th 2531**

**Location: Camp Curahee, Surface of Onyx**

"Listen up!" bellowed the sergeant, an unnecessary act given his audience comprised only the six members of Beta. "My name is Sergeant Stevens, and it has fallen to me to train you sorry bunch in the skills of handling UNSC weapons. You will listen to me and hold any questions until the end of the presentation."

He turned to face the wall behind him, it was covered from floor to ceiling in racks of weapons, many of which Steven recognised. As the sergeant ran through the common UNSC arsenal, assault rifle, pistol, shotgun, etc Steven felt little need to listen, he had spent so long playing the game back in his old life that he knew how each of them behaved and, thanks to his father, had a basic knowledge of how to fire a weapon.

"Now, although all these weapons are very exciting for you", the sergeant continued, his voice drenched in sarcasm, "you won't be getting your hands on them just yet. He pulled a small gun off from the lower levels of the shelves, it was around the size of the SMG but had the styling of an assault rifle. Steven's interest was immediately piqued.

"This is the JA5C, a junior version of the standard assault rifle, it is fully automatic but it only fires stun rounds, enough to down your targets but not to injure them." the sergeant explained.

Carter raised his hand and was instantly shot a look that made him lower it. As far as Steven could tell the sergeant thought it a joke to be teaching teenagers to use weapons, he was the sort of man who seemed as though he should have a wide array of prejudices. All of Beta took and instant disliking to him.

"Now that you understand the principles of the weapons we're going to the outdoor range to give you a basic lesson marksmanship principals. There's no use giving you a weapon if you can's shoot it straight." he turned and motioned for them to follow him through the back door of the armoury.

The team followed and found themselves at a two hundred meter range with a MA5B at each of the six nearest firing points. "I will now demonstrate the correct firing action using an MA5B, the principals for you will be exactly the same." Stevens turned, picked up his own rifle, put the butt of the rifle in his shoulder, flicked of the safety and let loose two five round bursts at the target. Seconds later the rotary system activated, bringing the target back towards them. It showed a man shaped images, someone had written Covie on it, a reference to the enemy they were so desperately fighting. The sergeant had got all his shots to hit within the chest area of the target and he grinned a smug grin.

"Move up to the firing point and do as I demonstrated, the MA5Bs you have may be a little large or you put the JA5C can't fire a live round so we'll have to make do." the sergeant ordered. Each member of the squad took up a position and picked up the rifles. Steven was instantly glad he would be augmented before using the rifle in combat, it was far heavier than he had expected. Nevertheless he raised it up and, resting it slightly on the ledge of the firing point and let off his own ten rounds.

By the time he was done the others had already finished, except Maria who was still firing, letting off the rounds one at a time, flinching slightly when the rifle bucked unexpectedly.

The sergeant walked up behind her when she had finished, his face had a cruel grin plastered on it. "Let's look at you're handiwork shall we 194." he pressed the button, bringing her target back to them. As it came to a halt the sergeant's jaw almost hit his feet, all her rounds had hit in the head, save one that had hit in the groin.

**Author's note: I went back to the previous chapter and decided I wasn't happy with them so I went back, added a few bits, sorted out some spelling and grammar and reposted. Chapter one doesn't have anything added but a few others bits got changed.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Capture the Flag: August 16th 2534**

**Location: Surface of Onyx, Training area**

"Ok, that's the plan. Steven you move out to your location, Maria, Emile do the same. Kai you're with me." Carter ordered. Beta Team split up into their parts ready to begin the capture the flag training mission.

Steven had been stuck in the Halo universe for over a year now and had become accustomed to the Spartan lifestyle, in fact he relished the challenges. Thanks to his father's daily running he was the fastest of the III's, he sometimes thought about his father, about what he was doing, what he thought about his son's disappearance, but more and more now that felt like a different life. Not long after the teams had been selected the LC had appointed team leaders for each team, unsurprisingly Carter was theirs.

He slowly crawled through the wet mud that coated the ground around the flag pole, the ground was ruined by the sheer numbers of feet that had passed over it on similar exercises. As he neared the edge of the forest he could make out the small bunker with the flag set on top, acting as guards around it were five trainers all armed with stun guns.

Steven just lay there and waited for several minutes until finally the pip came in over the radio, his signal to begin. He suddenly sprinted forwards, running out into the open and ran at the trainers, yelling at them as he did so. They whirled around, bringing their stun guns to bear. Steven went to ground, using the mud as a lubricant and slid right under the path of the stun rounds. He got back up again without breaking step and continued to run back and forth between cover, continually disorientating the trainers as he fired stun rounds from his JA5C at them.

Then, from either side of them, stun rounds soared in, hitting several of the trainers and eliciting loud curses as they nursed their wounds while still trying to fire back as Emile and Kai came in from either side. The trainers fired blindly at the source of the stun rounds, smacking Maria across the chest with three stun rounds, she fell to the ground, unconscious.

Emile yelled and charged at the trainers firing madly at the trainers, dozens of stun rounds impacting on them. Even as they fell he continued to fire, launching more and more rounds at them, even as they yelled and begged for mercy.

Out of the jungle Carter emerged out of the jungle and yelled at Emile to cease fire. Jun and Maria also appeared and began checking over the now unconscious trainers for injuries. Just as he emerged from cover Steven saw Carter round on Emile, "What was that Emile?" he yelled, poking his finger into Emile's chest.

Emile looked away sheepishly, "Sorry boss, I don't know what happened, I just saw her go down", he gestured to Maria, "and I zoned out." He started to walk away but Carter grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back. "Look, Emile, is there anything I need to know?" He shook his head and pushed Carter's hand away, then walked off.

Steven walked over to join Carter, "What was all that about?" he asked, looking down at Maria's unconscious form. "I don't know, Carter", replied, "but what Emile just did, he abandoned the plan and if that had been real combat we could all be dead. I need to think about this, if he's unstable then he isn't fit to be a Spartan." Carter walked off, heading in the direction of barracks.

From the ground Maria gasped as she regained consciousness, "What happened?", she gasped, "Where are Carter and Emile? Did we win?" Steven looked away guiltily. From the the side of the clearing Kai walked over, "After you got hit Emile went mad, fired enough stun rounds into the trainers to kill them if he hit the right places. Carter's off talking to him, sounds like Emile might get booted out." he explained, then he too walked off, heading for the barracks.

Once everyone had returned to the barracks and got changed out of their combats Emile disappeared off and the others lay on their beds, recuperating. Maria went to have a shower not long later. It always amazed Steven, had he shared a room with a girl in his previous life he would been the envy of all his friends, but here, no one thought anything of it. Such was the Spartan way.

Later that night Steven found himself unable to sleep and rather than lying there unable to sleep he decided he may as well have a shower. He grabbed his towel and left the room, bringing his wash bag with him. He made his way down the corridor to the showers, whistling as he walked. He turned the corner at the end of the hall and made for the door leading into the showers.

As he entered he heard a slight groaning sound from the furthest shower, he made his way carefully down the rows of shower, concerned that someone could have taken a stun round in a bad place. Whatever he had imagined it wasn't what he got. As he looked into the stall he saw Maria, pressed up against the rear wall, her arms wrapped around a boy's neck kissing him passionately. "What?" said Steven, his voice disbelieving and a little louder than intended. It was only when the boy turned around that the events of that day made sense. Emile looked shocked and choked out a half answer before turning bright red.

Had the circumstances been different Steven may have laughed, but not here. "What are you guys doing? If anyone finds out about this you could get in serious trouble, they could break up the team!" he was surprised at how angry he was with his two friends and took a moment to calm down. "How long has this been going on for?" he asked, crossing his arms across his chest.

"About a month." Maria replied, her face even redder than Emile's, if that was possible. "Please don't tell anyone." she begged, grabbing Steven's arm as he tried to walk away.

"Maria, you have to tell the others, if what happened today is any indication bottling it up could put us all at risk." he replied, his voice steadily rising again.

"Okay Steve", Emile said, "we'll tell them, just… let it come from us." he had a pleading look in his eyes as he said it. Steven sighed, "Fine, but tell them in the morning, don't try putting it off."

He turned and left the showers, he suddenly felt very tired. As he reentered their bunk room he crawled into his bed and lay there, his mind racing. He couldn't believe that Emile and Maria would do that, jeopardize everything for their own sake. If they'd just been open form the beginning there would have been much less of a problem.

**The Morning After: August 16th 2534**

**Location: Surface of Onyx, Camp Curahee**

There was an icy silence at the table as Maria and Emile explained everything to the rest of the group, no one looked at all happy about it. Carter looked as though he may burst a blood vessel, Kai for once just looked stunned and Jun seemed to think it was all a joke until Steven shot him a look.

"It has to stop." Carter said finally, his face stood and walked off in the direction of the exit, leaving his breakfast half eaten. "I can't believe you kept it from us." whispered Kai, his face slightly pale, "This could get us disbanded." then he too stood and walked off in the direction of their room. Steven suddenly realised, Carter had gone a different way, the direction if the Officer's Mess.

He leapt up from his chair and sprinted off in the direction Carter had gone. Just as he rounded the corner to the Officer's Mess he saw Carter just getting ready to knock on the door. "Stop!" he yelled down the corridor. Carter turned, a look of shock on his face. "Carter if Mendez or the LC find out about this they'll break us all up and you know it, we need to deal with this as a team, not just go and talk to Mendez."

"Steven, do you know how my parents died?" Carter asked, Steven shook his head nervously, "My dad was a Marine, he was home on Biko for leave but when the Covenant showed up he got called up to fight, it wasn't long until we knew we were beaten, you should know you were there. Anyway, he went back to try and find my mum, he found her alright, but they both got killed trying to get away, I had to watch as my they were burnt by plasma while I hid in alley. This thing with Emile and Maria, it's the same thing, they'll risk anything to save each other." he explained, for a moment Steven was shocked, he had had no idea how Carter's parents had died and he suddenly found himself full of respect for Carter.

"Carter, this different, we're Spartans, they're both Spartans. That's one of the things that makes us such a good team, our commitment to each other. Do you honestly think any of us could form the same bonds in another team?" Steven replied, trying to appeal to Carter's emotions.

Finally, after several minutes Carter sighed, "Fine", he said, his voice resigned, "I guess you're right." he turned and trudged off, back in the direction of the bunk room.

Suddenly, the door to the Mess swung open and Ackerson walked out, he was surprised to find Steven stood outside but he swiftly regained his composure, "Ah, 294, I was just about to come and look for you, I need to see you in my office, immediately."

Ackerson turned on his heel and strode down the corridor towards his office, Steven half jogging to keep up with his long strides.

As they entered the room Ackerson motioned for Steven to take a seat and he did the same as he went round to the far side of the desk. "We've been slowly working our way through the paperwork for all the recruits we've picked up, it takes a while to make three hundred children disappear of the bureaucratic radar. When we finally made it down to number 294 we ran your name through the system and for some reason, you don't exist. Care to explain?"

**Author's Note: Which was do you guys want this to go, should Ackerson find out about where Steven is from or should Steven think up an excuse? Let me know in your reviews.**


	5. Chapter 5

**An Awkward Situation: August 16th 2534**

**Location: Surface of Onyx, Camp **

"Sir, I can explain, but you're not going to believe me." Steven said, doing his best to keep his voice level, despite his heart pounding in his chest. If this didn't go well ONI would take him away and interrogate him until there was nothing left of him. "Try me." Ackerson snarled.

"When I was found on Biko, I wasn't unconscious because I fell, I was in a state of shock. If you spook to the Doctor on the _Hopeful_, you'll know when I woke up I said some things that didn't make sense, right?" Steven asked.

Ackerson narrower his eyes and nodded, "You said something about the Halo Universe?" "Right", Steven continued, "I'm not from here, where I come from the year is 2012 and everything here, you, the Spartans, the Covenant, it's all in a set of games and books." he all but blurted out, his nerves wrecking his usual composure.

"Okay, I understand", Ackerson said slowly, Steven looked up, hope in his eyes, "I'll call in a special Doctor to talk to you." Ackerson smiled, Steven rolled his eyes.

"Sir!", he said, "Suddenly realising, I can prove it!"

As they strode down the corridor towards Beta Team's bunk room the clunk of Ackerson's boots on the metal floor and thumping of Steven's heart in his ears was all he was aware of. Eventually they arrived at the bunk room and Steven held the door for Ackerson as he entered. All around the room the other Spartans stood and snapped of crisp salutes, "Sir", Carter said, marching forward to stand before the Colonel, "If this is about earlier, it's all under control now Sir, everything is sorted." his voice was nervous.

"At ease Beta Leader", the Colonel ordered, "I want you and your team to wait outside, I need to talk to 294 in private." Carter snapped off another salute and left the room, taking all the other members of Beta with him, save Steven.

"Show me your proof." Ackerson ordered, even as Steven headed over to his locker and pulled out his wallet and watch from where he had buried them at the bottom. He lifted them up and handed the to Ackerson. The Colonel took them and began to examine them, first the watch and then the wallet, he flicked through the cards in there looking at the ID and date of birth on each.

"Do you take me for a fool 294?" he asked, his voice furious, "This is an elaborate yet pointless lie to try and cover up what is undoubtedly and illegal past. Give me one good reason not to hadn you over to ONI?" Ackerson's face had gone bright red as he yelled, a vein practically bursting on his forehead.

He turned and began to head for the exit, "Because I know you brought Lieutenant Commander Ambrose here by capturing him on a Spartan II mission to Station Delphi and drew him in and made his T-pack malfunction using a ruptured Shaw-Fujikawa translight engine. Because I know that when you used to play fight with your brother you imagined fighting a dragon to get the Key of Osanalan." he called after him.

Ackerson wheeled around his face pale, "How could you possible know that?" he asked, sinking down to sit on the nearest bunk, "No one knows that." he put his head in his hands and fell silent.

"Sir, with respect, I know a great deal more, things that could change the course of the war. If you let me stay I can help make the Spartan IIIs more successful than you ever imagined, I know what the enemy is planning, why they went to war, how the war ends. Just let me stay." Steven begged.

Ackerson lifted his head up slowly, "Fine, you can stay, but if I even suspect you are with holding information from me I will have you taken away and all the information will be forcefully removed." He stood to leave.

"Thank you Sir." he called after him as he left.

**The Next Step: August 17th 2534**

**Location: Surface of Onyx, Camp Curahee**

Each member of Beta lay around on their bunks talking, it was their first day off from training in over a month ad everyone needed the rest. Emile lay, sprawled across his bed with Maria resting her face against his chest and listening contentedly to the others as they chatted.

They had already laughed about the group's most entertaining moments, most notably Maria's humiliation of the Sergeant at the range and his subsequent decision to move back to the front lines, away from the demon children.

Suddenly, the intercom system for the entire barracks began to buzz, preparing for an announcement, everyone sat up, save for Emile and Maria who could only move their heads for fear of losing their comfortable position. "Will all Spartan please report immediately to your designated briefing rooms briefing rooms." It was the Lieutenant Commander, his voice sounded anxious, never a good sign in a superior officer.

All of Beta did up their collar buttons on their fatigues and left their room, joining the orderly stream of people making their way out of the barracks and over to the briefing complex.

As they exited the barracks they instantly missed the air conditioned environment within, in summer Onyx was almost always hovering around 30 degrees centigrade in the shade, and hitting forty in the open. They almost instantly began to sweat and were glad when they made it into the sheltered environs of the briefing complex.

They made their way to the briefing room they had been assigned, shared with the other hundred Spartans from their group. Alpha and Beta teams greeted each other as they entered, despite the friendly atmosphere the two teams were rivals in the training grounds, the two were always vying for top honours, at the moment Beta held first place.

Once they had taken their seats the Lieutenant Commander stood up behind the lectern and began his speech, "You have all done very well, surpassed the expectations of both my self and your instructors. You are to be commended, but now we move onto the next stage. As you are you are some of the best soldiers in the UNSC but in order to be by far and above the best we need to push the limits of what your bodies can do. Upgrades if you will. You will be shipped out of Onyx this evening onboard the UNSC _Atlas_ to the UNSC _Hopeful_ where the procedure will be carried out. Now you will return to your barracks and pack your things then await further orders. Dismissed." he called.

There was a bustle of excitement as everyone stood up to leave. The members of Beta turned to each other, a glint in their eyes, this was what would distinguish them from the rest of the UNSC, make them the best they could be. This was what they had been waiting for.

**Author's Note: I know this is quite short but I wanted to put up another chapter. As ever if anyone has any suggestions for what they would like to see in this story please say in you reviews or message. Please read and review!**


	6. Chapter 6

**The UNSC _Hopeful_: August 22nd 2534**

**Location: Onboard the UNSC _Atlas_, Slipspace**

Steven slowly opened his eyes and instantly regretted it, the light outside was so harsh that he was forced to squeeze them shut. He lurched forward and felt a thump as his head hit a glass pane and then it all came back to him, he was in a cryopod aboard the UNSC _Atlas_ en route to the _Hopeful_. There was a sudden hiss as the cryopod opened, supercooled air from within it pouring out in a fog around his feet as he stood up and got out of his pod.

All around him the other members of Beta squad and indeed the rest of Alpha Company. They must have arrived, he realised. His suspicions were confirmed as the speakers on the wall above them crackled to life, "All Spartans are to report immediately to hangar bay 15C." the voice cut of, the Spartans rushed to pull on their clothes, everyone was nervous and no one wanted to keep Mendez waiting. Beta squad were some of the first to arrive in the hangar and they formed up as they had done so many times before. Mendez stood a little way in front of them and gave them a polite nod.

From behind them they heard the door his open and the stomping of a 295 feet filled the room as the rest of Alpha Company filed in. Once everyone had taken up their positions there was total silence. The door at the back hissed open again and a young ensign ran into the room, making a beeline for Mendez. He slowed as he approached and the two men saluted each other, there were then several moments of whispering during which the ensign seemed to be parting with some sort of problem to Mendez with a solution being given in return. Finally they saluted again and the ensign ran out again.

"Spartans", Mendez began, "you are among the finest group of soldiers I have ever had the pleasure to train but after today you will be faster and stronger than I ever could have made you. In a moment you will divide up into your usual three groups and be led to three separate facilities where you will undergo the procedure. Good luck Spartans." he turned and gestured for the three ensigns who had entered during Mendez's short speech.

The first group, including Beta stepped off and began followed the ensign out of the hangar and into corridor to the facility. All the way Steven's heart was in his throat, while he knew none of them would die as the Spartan IIs had he knew that the procedure would be unbearably painful. He felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to see Kai looking at him with a concerned look on his face, "You okay?", he asked, "You've gone really pale." Steven shook his head to clear it, "I'm fine, just a bit apprehensive." he replied, quickening his pace a little.

Finally they arrived and each team headed off into the area allocated for them. As he entered the Beta area Steven saw a row of five pods, vaguely reminiscent in design to the cryopods they had just left but these were lines with rows of needles set back slightly so as they wouldn't puncture the skin as soon as the user lay down. Mounted just above each one was an autosurgeon, multiple appendages with sharp blades and saws hung underneath. Just off to the side of the whole bank of pods was a glass vat full of a pale, creamy coloured liquid that seemed to bubble like it was boiling.

The curtain to their area swung open and Ackerson marched in, a concerned look on his face, "294, come here for moment." Steven turned away from the others and went over to the Colonel, snapping off a salute as he approached. "294, I need to know, does anything go wrong today?" he actually seemed concerned, whether it was for his own sake or for the sake of the Spartans he couldn't be sure but he shook his head, "No Sir, the procedure goes as expected and everyone survives." Ackerson smiled slightly and nodded, then turned to leave, before he left he turned back and whispered, "Thank you."

"What did he want?" Carter asked as Steven rejoined them, for a moment he was silent, thinking of an excuse for what the Colonel could have wanted but he was spared the trouble as a medical technician entered the area. "Spartans, I need you to enter your pods, the process will start automatically."

Emile sighed, "Guess it'll have to wait, huh?" and he chuckled and turned back to Maria and gave her a kiss on the cheek, so blushed slightly and returned the gesture. "Come on love birds." Kai chuckled, jokingly pulling them apart. Emile shot him a filthy look but then clambered into his pod.

Once he was in the pod Steven sat there, motionless, his heart pounding in his chest. The monitor to the side of him showed his heart rate, it was high but nowhere near dangerous. A small message popped up on the monitor. _Beginning injection of carbide ceramic ossification catalyst. _The message sat there as dozens of robotic needle arms swung up from the sides of the pod and a whirring from behind him as some of the rows of needles behind him joined them. He felt pin pricks penetrate all over his body and he clenched his teeth. Within a moment the pain had passed but then it was back with a vengeance, the pale liquid he had seen in the tank earlier was slowly draining out into each of the pods, pumping into the Spartan's bodies.

He squeezed his eyes tight shut and yelled in pain. As he forced them open he saw two technicians stood beside his pod talking to each other, their faces concerned. His bones felt as though they were on fire, every inch of his body stung and burned, a painful itch from within the very bones of his body. He could just make out what the techs were saying, evidently he shouldn't be awake but he was in too much pain for the issue to register he just yelled through clenched teeth, "Don't stop!" The inside of his bones felt as though they were made of glass, being shattered and reformed over and over again.

The techs seemed startled as they realised he had spoken, a grim look on their faces but they still nodded. Then, as suddenly as it had started the pain was gone but he had been left with a shattering headache. The monitor flashed a new message, _Injection complete, beginning injection of fibroid muscular protein complex. _Steven braced himself for the next wave of pain, but nothing could prepare him for it. Dozens more needle pin pricks struck all over him, entering every muscle group and pushing another liquid into his bloodstream. He screamed in pain yet again, napalm seemed to flow through his veins, burning up everything in him. As he glanced down he could see the muscles in his body pulsing and expanding beneath his very skin. His arm thrashed to the side, denting the thick metal. From nowhere he felt another jab into his neck.

His arm shot up and gripped around an arm, his eyes locked with the medical tech's as his thumb pressed down on the syringe, injecting another fluid into him. He slightly tightened his hand and felt the bones in the tech's arm move and his face went pale and he screamed. Even as he let go of the arm his vision began to darken, the tech had given him more anesthetic.

His last glance at the monitor showed a new message, _Commencing superconducting fibrification of neural dendrites. _Even as he fell unconscious the pain continued, fire burning up his spine and filling his head. Then, spreading out from his spine, the fire spread over the nerves of his entire body, a stinging and burning sensation all over his body. Again, the pain subsided only to be replaced by an intense stinging in his eyes, he tried to move his arms to rub them but they refused to move, simply sending lances of pain up his arms.

Finally, the pain subsided, he fell into a fully anesthetized state and it was over.

**Author's Note: This chapter seemed to take a long time but I like to think it was ok. Can I get some ideas and reviews for what people want to see and what they think of the story so far. As always I hope you're enjoying the story and please review.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Issues: August 25th 2534**

**Location: Onboard the UNSC _Hopeful_**

As he woke up Steven tried to sit up a little and see where he was and instantly regretted it. He winced and clutched himself, incurring only more pain. "Don't move, it'll just hurt more." Steven heard, even through the pain.

"What's wrong with me?" he groaned, grinding his teeth together. Every time he moved a muscle it ached, a stabbing pain and one which he couldn't drown out. "You're alright, but the muscular stimulant drug you were given as part of the augmentation had a more drastic effect on you than any of the other Spartans. In short you are strongest of all but the processes of getting that way almost tore your body apart. If we hadn't already hardened your bones your body would have snapped itself like a bag of twigs. You've been in an induced coma for three days while your body recovered. Now that your this much better and can move again you need to do so as much as possible, it'll speed up your recovery. Your clothes are on the chair and once you're dressed your free to go." the doctor explained as he came over to Steven's bed, taking a seat at the adjacent table.

Once the doctor had left Steven flopped back heavily on the bed and sighed heavily, gently rubbing his temple. He sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed, wincing less than the previous time he had moved. Hung over the back of the chair up against the far wall were the clothes he had gone into the procedure wearing.

He stood up a little shakily and looked over into the small mirror on the wall, the sight shocked him. His body was huge, he was two metres tall, had developed a light layer of stubble but most shocking were his muscles. The were huge, had they been on his unaugmented body they would have looked absurd. He flexed his bicep, his eyes almost popping out of his head. If only the people back home could see me now, he thought to himself.

As he pulled on his clothes a problem instantly arose. His trousers stopped at his ankles and he physically couldn't do up his shirt. He groaned quietly to himself and turned towards the door only to have an orderly and crash into him.

At the sight of the two meter tall Spartan his face conveyed serious shock out he quietly muttered out, "Sorry, these clothes should be a better fit." He turned and hurried out the door again. Do I really look that threatening? He thought to himself. He wanted to bring hope to people not scare them into a corner. He pushed the thought aside and pulled on the new clothes, a much better fit.

Even as he left and made his way back to the Beta squad bunk room he decided he need to take a shower. As he approached the door he heard voices coming from within, the rest of the squad must have already got out of the medbay.

He came up to the door and keyed the open switch, inside he saw the rest of the squad crowded around a table in the middle, in a heated argument with Emile. As he entered silence fell on the room and everyone turned to him, a look of shock on their faces. "Steve!", called Jun, "It's great to finally see you, shame you've arrived in the middle of a crisis!" he chuckled.

"What is it?" he half groaned, going over to join the group. As he sat down the small stool collapsed underneath him with a snap and a crunch. "Come on big guy, you need to be more careful!" laughed Kai, almost falling of his chair. Steven sighed and pulled himself up off the floor and sat down on the bunk. "You were saying?" he asked.

"Emile refuses to go and talk to his girlfriend." said Carter, as ever getting straight to the heart of the matter. "What?" asked Steven, still not fully understanding the situation. Jun sighed and elaborated, "We walked in and saw he crying and now Emile won't go and ask what's wrong."

"Look, she just needs some space, that's all." growled Emile through clenched teeth, he had become very defensive of his relationship with Maria and more importantly refusing to accept any advise. "Sorry guys, I need a chance to get my head straight, I'm gonna go take a shower." he replied, grabbing his towel and wash bag from his footlocker in a single fluid movement.

He made his way down the corridor rubbing his temples again, just his luck to come back in the middle of a crisis. He made his way down the corridor towards the shower, his mind whirring.

Inside the shower room it was almost silent, he was after all having a shower in the middle of the day, unthinkable under normal circumstances. From the furthest end of the block he could a quiet sobbing. He made his way down the rows of cubicles cautiously, last time he had done something like this was back on Onyx when he had blown the cover on Maria and Emile. He knocked lightly on the cubicle door and waited for a response.

After a few sniffs a quiet voice called out, "Who is it?" He instantly recognised the voice, Maria. "It's Steven, are you okay?" he asked.

"Are you okay?" she called back, "You were in the medbay in a coma!" her voice revealed her blocked nose, she had been crying for while. "I'm not the one crying in a shower cubicle. What's up?" he replied.

"Three years." she whispered. "My parent died three years ago and I've come so far but they'll never see how I turned out. The Covenant stole my family from me, I never wanted to be a soldier, I know I'm good at it now but I never planned it. I just don't know if I'm doing the right thing, I was a Christian back home, not meant to be violent, not meant to take revenge but what was it that drew me in? Revenge."

"Maria, the Covenant left us with no choice, if we don't fight, if we don't take a stand we'll all be dead, I was like you back home but out here, we have no choice but to fight and we can take it out on the Covenant for forcing us into it." Steven replied.

The lock on the cubicle clacked open and the door swung open, revealing a red faced Maria, sitting on the floor, her arms wrapped around her body. Steven stepped in and sat down next to her, putting his arm over her shoulder as he did so. "We need to get you back to the others, everyone is worried about you."

She sniffed once and nodded, then sat up and walked out of the cubicle and over to the sink, splashing water on her face. After she was content the worst of the crying symptoms were gone she left and headed back to the bunk room.

Steven opted to stay and have the shower he had promised himself. After he was finished he brushed his teeth and shaved, a knew job for him to do since it was the augmentations that had sped their advance through puberty.

He pulled on a clean uniform and headed back to the bunk room. As he entered the room his first thought was that it was empty, it was only after he moment he spotted to people lying, totally oblivious to the world around them, on Emile's bed. He quietly put his stuff away and left to find the rest of Beta.

**Author's Note: Sorry it's a bit short, I really need to start making the chapters longer. As always any feedback is much appreciated.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Big Man: August 27th 2534**

**Location: Onboard the UNSC _Atlas_**

"Ninety eight, ninety nine, one hundred!" cheered the members of Beta as they moved away from Steven as the massive weight he had been lifting fell to the ground with a heavy thud, denting the floor slightly.

"Christ, you're just stupidly strong!" laughed Kai, slapping Steven on the shoulder. "Back on Epsilon Theta people were always lifting weight like that, mind you the gravity was only half of what it is on Earth, so it's not really saying much." he laughed again. It was something Steven had noticed after the augmentations about Kai, he was always making jokes and laughing, he didn't know why or how but something had changed about the young Spartan.

Maria echoed his thoughts as she turned to Kai, "How come you're so full of life all of a sudden, it used to be hell to even make you smile!" she prodded his chest playfully and smirked. Kai simply shrugged, "Since we almost lost Steve I realised that keeping myself to myself isn't a good thing, if I had died you wouldn't remember me as I want to be remembered, that's why I'm a lot more open now." he explained, his expression finally serious.

"Well said." Carter said, having entered just in time to hear the small speech, he bumped his fist lightly on Steven's shoulder, "You just keep getting bigger don't you?" he chuckled, before turning back to the rest of the team. "I've been told we're heading back to Onyx to complete our training, slipspace jump is scheduled for four hours from now, cryo is an option if we want it."

Steven shook his head and put his hands up, "Now way am I going in cryo, every time I wake up early and have medics fussing over me. I'm staying out so I can work out."

After less than a minute of discussion the whole team had agreed to stay awake for the trip and they went back to their work outs.

Forty five minutes later Steven was finally done with his workout and made for the showers, stopping by the bunk room to pick up his wash kit. As he entered one of the female Spartans from Gamma Team was just getting dressed after her own shower. Despite his military training and years of communal showers on Onyx Steven still found it a little awkward to be shower with the opposite gender.

He nodded politely to her as she left. Once she was gone he began pulling off his clothes and grabbed his towel, heading for the nearest shower. He slipped in and pressed for water, the small timer on the shower wall began ticking, indicating the time for a shower due to limited water onboard a ship.

He hurriedly washed himself and then allowed himself a few moments of pleasure as the water washed over him, soothing any and all aches and pains. Finally, seemingly too soon the water shut off and he was left standing there. He sighed and pulled his towel to him and dried his body. He wrapped it around his waist and exited the shower just as the door hissed open and his friend from Delta Team walked in, Sarah. She smiled at him as she spotted him and he returned the gesture, feeling once again awkward as he dropped his towel.

He hurried to get dressed, his face turning red as he did so, he swore he could feel her eyes watching him. Before he was finished he heard the hiss of the shower turning on and he relaxed, no one to watch him now. He pulled on his clothes and left the showers, slinging his towel over his shoulder.

As he entered the room he was surprised to find the lights off yet the room was still illuminated by a flickering orange light from the corner. He quietly put his kit down on his bed and rounded the corner to see what was happening. Sat cross legged before a small candle with three photos laid out in front of him was Jun, he was chanting in a low pitch, swaying slightly as he did so.

Steven stood there mesmerized as the minutes ticked by. Finally Jun realised he was being watched and blew out the candle and gathered the pictures in a fluid motion. He turned to look at his visitor, his face displaying some unreadable emotion.

Steven furrowed his brow, "You look confused." stated Jun, smiling slightly, although the smile didn't seem to have come naturally. "What were you doing?" Steven asked, his tone quiet, as if in a church. "I pray for my lost family when I have to chance, these days I get little time but I do my best, you see, I must ask forgiveness for failing them."

Jun picked up the candles and slipped it, along with the pictures into his locker. He turned back to Steven and smiled again, slightly more warmly, "You need not concern yourself, it is my burden to bear."

He turned to leave but Steven called after him, "I'm your friend Jun, if you ever want to talk about it, I'm here." The door hissed shut and Steven was left in the deafening silence of the room.

He sighed and shook his head, he was beginning to realise just how little he knew about his friends, but he guessed with pasts like theirs, no one wanted to talk. He was different in that respect to the others, he had not lost family to the Covenant and never would.

Suddenly the intercom blared into life with a hiss of static, "This is the Captain speaking, we will be arriving in the Zeta Doradus system in five minutes, all candidates are to report to the hangar immediately.

He quickly threw his wash bag back into his locker and ran for the hangar.

By the time he arrived so had many of the others, despite the fact that no officer was present all of them had formed up into ranks, divided up into their respective teams. Filing in with the rest of Beta he realised that Maria and Emile was conspicuously absent, he concerns as to their whereabouts where quickly answered as the pair rushed in through the door.

As the joined in with the others Steven turned to Emile, "Your shirt's on backwards." he informed his friend, and chuckled as Emile went red with embarrassment. He quickly turned his shirt around, regaining his composure. "Anyone know why we're here?" he asked. Everyone shook their heads, then, as if in answer to his question the door at the far end of the hangar hissed open and Lieutenant Commander Ambrose strode in, prompting everyone in the hangar to adopt a stiff attention.

"At ease everyone." Ambrose said, his voice carried so well in the silence he had no need to raise his voice. "You may be wondering why I had you all called here, the answer is simple, when we arrive back on Onyx there will be a briefing in which you will be given some new equipment to push you all beyond what you currently can be, followed by an exercise to determine which team receive top honours." he let the words sink in, there was a tense silence in the room, all the teams had been vying for top honours for months, currently Alpha squad, led by Shane and Beta squad were at the top of the league and this final exercise would likely be a direct confrontation between the two.

Although, Steven had a feeling that he knew exactly what equipment they were getting, SPI armour, while not as good as MJOLNIR armour it provided them with active camouflage and enhanced abilities.

Suddenly the ship shuddered, evidence it had dropped out of slipspace, the mechanism above their heads buzzed into life, cycling a dozen Pelicans into the hangar from where they were stored for maintenance during long journeys.

As soon as they had clunked onto the deck the back hatched hissed open and the Spartans boarded the transports.

The steady stream of Pelicans leaving the hangar would have been quite a sight had those on the planet below not been expecting it, and as they roared down through the atmosphere the engines whined, desperately trying to control the speed of the small ships.

Out of the small windows Steven could see Camp Curahee in the distance, slowly getting nearer, unit, to his surprise the Pelicans lowered down into an area of surrounded by dense jungle.

The Spartans were standing before the dropship had made landfall and were quick to exit once it had landed. Once outside the intense humidity of the jungle bore down on them and they were grateful when a man in the garb of a UNSC technician ushered them into a large, and air conditioned, complex of buildings.

The signs overhead guided each squad of Spartans to a different lab, clearly armour fitting was easier to do in small groups. When Beta entered their room they were greeted by the sight of six mannequins against the far wall, each with a white sheet over it. A row of seats signaled that they should be seated. Behind them the door swung open and a rather diminutive looking tech walked in and stood before them, practically cowering under the confident gazes of the six Spartans.

"Welcome, my name is Samuel Davies, I'm going to be issuing you with some new equipment he began, gesturing with one hand to the mannequins with one hand while using the other to support himself with against his lectern.

He walked over them and went along steadily pulling each sheet off as he went along. While Steven had been expecting the SPI armour to look as it did in the few pictures he had seen of it back home it was nothing like them. In fact it seemed that the Spartan III program had been able to obtain the extra funding Kurt had fought for in the books and managed to improve the SPI armour considerably. Rather than looking like MJOLNIR armour that had been built on a budget it looked like MJOLNIR armour that had been cut down to reduce weight but had retained much of the styling and power.

"This is Semi-Powered Infiltration armour, or SPI for short. You have learned many of your tactics and skills from the Spartan IIs but as this program has so many more candidates and so many technical advances to be made from the IIs this armour is a similar idea. It can do a lot of what the II's armour can do and some things it can do better." he walked over to the nearest set of armour and tapped in a few commands on an adjacent computer terminal, suddenly the armour vanished and all that remained was a crystal clear mannequin. "One of the improvements is this, active camouflage, you may notice a slight distortion in the air around this mannequin but that is all that is visible of the armour. However, I must warn you that the faster you move the more obvious you will become."

Steven nodded to himself knowingly, better than he had expected but still limited. "That's the only feature you can't best see while you're using it, so without further ado fit each of you up." the tech gestured for Steven to come over, since he was sat on the end nearest the armour. "I'll need you to strip down to you underwear." the tech said, somewhat awkwardly, and quite understandably. He backed off a little as Steven did.

As he was taking his shirt off Steven had to remind himself that he was the most muscular of all the IIIs thanks to his strange reaction to the augmentations. This did little to relieve his embarrassment though. Once he was down to his underwear he suddenly wished the building wasn't so well air conditioned.

While he had been changing the tech had stripped off the outer layers of of the SPI armour and brought over a black undersuit, it reminded Steven of a wetsuit he had worn when he went surfing.

He pulled it on, glad of the chance to put some clothes on. "Stand still while I put the rest of the armour on." the tech ordered, as he began attaching the armoured plates on. As he went Steven slowly felt the weight increasing around him until finally the tech was done. He grabbed the last component from the table behind him and handed Steven the helmet.

Steven looked at it before he pulled it on, the helmet was almost identical to the MJOLNIR Mark V Spartan 117 had worn during the first Halo game except the visor was black in colour, a more sensible choice for stealth armour than gleaming gold.

He pulled the helmet on and as the interface he knew so well from the games popped up before his eyes the weight of the armour all but vanished.

In the space of just a few second Steven had gone from feeling like a kid in a suit of armour to feeling like a true warrior, a Spartan

**Author's Note: Sorry it's been so long since any updates life had been way too busy and to be honest I lost all motivation to write this story for a bit! Thanks to zezia for getting me started again. You see what happens if you don't keep me spurred on with reviews! Anyway, a bit of a longer chapter to try and make up for my neglect. Please review!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Top Honours: August 28th 2534**

**Location:Training Area, Surface of Onyx**

"At ease!" called Mendez and the twelve members of Alpha and Beta squads prepared to listen in to the briefing for what was, for them, the most important exercise of their careers so far.

"I know you are all eager to clash head on for Top Honours but every time you lot have gone at each other at least one of you has ended up in medical. This time you will each be simultaneously assaulting two structures controlled by trainers, you will be given no more details than that, you will do your own recon and the first team to successfully seize control of the structure wins. You will, however, also be judged on your tactics and preparation, since I do not want to encourage you to just charge in without planning ahead. You may draw your equipment from the armoury in the next twenty minutes. Fall out."

The two teams both headed for different sections of the armoury, anxious not to give away any plans to the other. "Alright", said Carter, "Maria and Jun, I want you two to provide sniper cover, Steven and Emile, close quarters. Kai, you and me need rifles but you and Emile each carry explosives. All of us grab sidearms and a few grenades and meet me here in ten minutes."

The group dispersed and headed off to the relevant areas, Steven happily grabbed a shotgun and loaded it full with cartridges, then stuffed more into his pack. He then grabbed a sidearm and threw half a dozen spare magazines for it into the pack. He attached the shotgun to the magnetic panel on his back and the pistol to his thigh, the grenades went around his belt.

He turned back and looked around, seeing everyone else was almost ready, except for Jun and Maria who were setting up their sniper rifles. As nervous as he felt Steven couldn't wait for the exercise to begin. In the time he had spent in the Halo universe he had become tougher, faster and more intelligent than he had ever though possible. He relished the challenges of being a Spartan but there were two things constantly looming over him, the thought that any day someone could find out about his origins and decide to give him to ONI, the other was the knowledge that some day in the not too distant future Operation PROMETHEUS would be announced, and signal the death of every single Spartan III he knew, including himself, although he didn't know how most of Beta would fare, since several would go on to form Noble Team.

He was forced to push these thoughts aside as Carter called them all over. "Everyone got their equipment?" Carter asked, his voice revealing the anticipation he was feeling. Once everyone had confirmed this he nodded and they headed out of the armoury to await for their transport.

Almost as soon as they had sat down outside Alpha squad arrived, "Good luck." said Shane as they went by, his voice sounded frosty to say the least. If it weren't for their years of training there would be a serious risk of a brawl starting between the two groups. "Likewise." Carter said, his tone equally dangerous.

Several minutes later the Pelicans had landed to pick up the Spartans and shuttle them off to the training area.

On the journey there each member of the team was watching out of the small windows, making the most of the little aerial recon they could get. In the distance Steven could just about make out a squat concrete structure, thanks to his augmented vision he could make out at least a dozen tiny people moving about on the roof, presumably their opposition.

They didn't have much time to look out since the Pelican was soon lowering down until it hovered just about the ground in a small clearing in the jungle. Once the hatch swung down the Spartans charged down the ramp and headed straight into the jungle, eager to make sure that their position wouldn't be easy to find.

Once they had moved a sufficient distance from the drop point Carter signaled for Maria to keep watch on the area around them and listen in via her radio while he talked through the plan.

"Okay", he began, "Here's what we're gonna do…"

Almost exactly one hour later the whole team was in position, Maria and Jun posted on a nearby hill providing sniper cover for the duration, Steven and Emile stood just ten metres from the front gate of the compound they were to capture. Carter and Kai had snuck into the base around dusk, the low light condition still gave their eyes perfect vision but it would play havoc with the guards since it was still too light for night vision and too dark for the naked eye to be effective.

Since there had been no gunfire from within the facility Steven could only assume his fellow Spartans had succeeded in their infiltration, he and Emile were now waiting for the go signal for them to begin their assault.

Suddenly Carter's status light flashed green, go time.

He and Emile hurried to the entrance, watching as the guards swapped their duties, one lot out another one in. The new guard's eyes would not be used to the darkness yet giving yet another advantage to the Spartans on top of their active camouflage. Just as the guards were changing around the Spartans snuck past, the guards too busy with changing shift to notice the almost silent footsteps just before them.

Doing their best to stick to the shadows Steven and Emile followed the guards who were heading back into the compound. As the guards each swiped their access cards across the card reader and opened the doors the Spartans stealthily dived through after them, careful not to touch the door and arouse any suspicions.

Emile's status flashed green, informing the other members of Beta that he had Steven were in, but it was also to give the terminate instruction. Simultaneously they dived forwards, Steven wrapped his arm around the guards throat holding him still, before he had time to cry out his other hand grabbed his face, covering the mouth to stop him yelling. Steven stood there until the guard went limp. The two Spartans dragged the unconscious bodies of the guards into a nearby supply room, fortunately empty.

Neither Spartan had seen any need to waste their limited number of stun round shotgun shells so soon in the mission. Each Spartan appropriated the access cards from the guards and headed back into the hall.

The two pushed on into the base until they reached the first room. On the door in small black letters was printed, _Barracks_. Quietly Steven pushed open the door. In the few moments he had to observe the room he saw several bunks positioned around the edges of the room and in the middle of the room a small table with five guards sat around it playing cards, poker by the look of it.

This was all he had time for however as the small group turned to see who had opened the door and instantly got their feet when they saw that the door had seemingly opened of it's own accord.

Steven grabbed his pistol from his hip and brought it up in a solid two handed grip, took aim at the nearest guards and fired a single stun round into the man's chest, he fell backwards off his chair and landed in a heap, unconscious.

Pushing further into the room Steven target the next guard and fired, another round dead on the centre of mass. Next to him Steven heard a loud bang and a thump as a Emile fired of his shotgun, stun balls flying everywhere from the modified round, hitting all the remaining guards and those that had already been taken down.

"Show off." muttered Steven once the small battle was over, shutting the door behind them the pair moved further into the room to relieve the guards of any weapons or ammunition. "Just 'cause you didn't think of that." Emile replied and Steven knew he was smirking underneath that black visor.

Suddenly a voice came from behind them, "Hey guys, can you deal me… Who are you?!" Spinning around with speed only a Spartan could achieve Emile brought up his fists and prepared to fight, the guard lunged forwards swinging a fist at Emile but he easily brought up his arm to block the blow, his other arm jabbing forward, fingers extended and hit right in the man's solar plexus, winding him and knocking him to the floor with the force of the blow.

The man lay on the ground wheezing as he tried to stand up, staggering to his feet. Emile jabbed forward with two fingers hitting the man in the throat instantly returning him to the ground, unconscious. "Bastard wouldn't give up." Emile said, half to himself.

The pair continued on, clearing rooms one at a time, slowly working their way up the base floor by floor. Fortunately they had caught the base at a good time, a lot of personnel were asleep and were easy enough to knock out.

Finally, two floors and several dozen guards later the two Spartans were at the bottom of the staircase leading to the top floor of the base, form the outside it looked as though it was only big enough for one room due the vaguely pyramid shaped building.

They each loaded up the last of their stun shells and racked the slide. Emile nodded to him and motioned for him to breach the door. Unclipping the explosive charge from his back Steven activated the timer and set a ten second timer, magnetically locking the charge to the door.

They backed a few metres down the corridor and turned on their sound dampeners until they saw the flash and rumble of the explosives. Turning in unison they sprung forwards, charging into the room. Either side of the door two guards were knocked backwards by stun shells.

While Steven elected to continue with the weapon dropped his to the ground and leapt into the nearest group of enemies, his fists and blur as he dismantled the guards, leaving them in a heap on the floor.

Several minutes later the room was secured and the two move over to the computer terminal, perhaps there was some intel Mendez had left for them to find.

However, before they could activate the terminal they heard an unmistakable sound, a safety flicking off behind them. They turned to find themselves looking down the barrels of a pair of MA5Bs, the standard issue UNSC assault rifle.

"On your knees, freaks." spat a voice from behind the two soldiers holding the weapons. They parted slightly to make way for the man, clearly the leader. His visor glinted under the artificial lights, he too had his rifle leveled Steven's face.

Steven gulped slightly slowly lowering a rifle until a moment later something caught his eye and he raised it once more. "Are you retarded?!" roared the ODST stepping forwards and whacked the butt of his weapon into Steven's face.

"No." Steven replied, perfectly calmly, "but you are." he smiled lightly as the ODST stepped nearer and depolarized his visor. "How so, freak?" he stormed, his words dripping with venom.

"Well, what good team comes in without back up?"

Behind the ODSTs the distinctive whirring of active camouflage shutting off appeared and two more Spartans appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, their rifle aimed at the ODSTs.

The three Marines spun around, taking in the new arrivals, their eyes wide with shock or fear, Steven couldn't tell. Before the man had a chance to make another snide comment Steven brought if shotgun up and whacked the butt over the ODSTs head and he instantly crumpled.

Carter stepped forwards, pulling off his helmet, a smile plastered across his face. "Good job guys, we did it."

**Author's Note: Back again with another chapter, 2012 words of story. As ever if you have any ideas for what you would like to see in this or have an opinion please review. I need feedback if I'm going to keep you guys happy! Updates might be low since I've just started school again.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Make 'Em Pay: September 18th 2534**

**Location: Onboard UNSC _Lancelot_, Slipspace**

Steven woke with a start, his head jerking up and painfully smacking into the bunk above him. He rubbed his head a looked over at the clock, 0530, still half an hour until the others would wake up but he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep.

He swung his legs out and stretched. It was no wonder he had woken up, the pain in his rib was back, a gift from an elite during the battle for New London two weeks previously. The combat had been difficult for the Spartans, they had all had to watch as brutes slaughtered civilians, ONI wouldn't give them clearance to intervene in case news of the newest super-soldiers was leaked.

They had spent their whole active career so far subtly trying to fight the Covenant off several planets with New London having been the only colony not lost. All that was about to change though, their next mission was to make a strike against a Covenant resupply post just outside UNSC space, seemingly a point at which enemy ships would gather to prepare for an attack.

Three teams of Spartan IIIs were being sent in, including Beta squad. He grabbed his wash bag and made his way to the showers, his mind full of combat memories.

By the time he had got back everyone else was up and getting ready, they had been ordered to meet in the aft briefing room at 0630, a whole forty five minutes away. Steven sighed as he put his wash bag away and pulled out his uniform. He forced the grim thoughts of war from his mind and got dressed. Just as he was buttoning up his shirt Carter came over and tapped him on the shoulder, motioning for him to follow.

Once they were outside Carter turned to face him, "You feeling okay? You look like death." Steven noticed that his friend was already looking more and more like the man he would soon become and it was a moment before he replied, lost in his thoughts. "I'm fine, just a bit distracted."

"Make sure you're not like that when we arrive , I don't want a repeat incident with your rib, got it?" he grinned slightly, trying to lighten the mood. It didn't work and Steven just nodded, returning to the bunk room.

As 0630 approached Beta squad made their way to the briefing room and took their seats around the holoprojector. Just behind them entered the other two Spartan teams, none of whom Steven could claim to know well. Moments later and ONI lieutenant with the name _Haverson _printed across his chest in black letter entered and stood by the holopad.

"Spartans, as you know your next mission is to eliminate a Covenant supply post on our boarders." he tapped a button on the holopad and a detailed image of the small space station appeared. "While the station is not heavily defended itself the constant flow of warships means that it is not possible to provide naval support. We will be dropping you out of slipspace in heavily modified drop pods. You will breach the station and try to overload the reactor. If the opportunity arises you will also try to access the Covenant computer network and download any intel you can. Any questions?"

Carter raised his hand and the lieutenant raised an eyebrow, "Sir, what are our extraction options?"

"Limited, if Covenant activity is low and there are no warships in system then we will rendez-vous at at the edge of the nearby asteroid field. If activity is high, you will need to get out of there yourselves and we will meet you at a destination installed on your mission datapad, it also contains software which will extract the necessary information from the Covenant network."

Carter nodded, seemingly content. "Alright", said Haverson, "if there are no more questions report to drop bay 3C and get ready to go."

All the Spartans stood and saluted, then, once Haverson had returned the salute they turned and filed out of the room.

Inside the drop bay was the typical armoury, usually use by ODSTs it was had all their usual equipment along with the regular weapons. However, stood in one corner of the room wearing a white lab coat was a single man along with a half dozen crates with the sinister logo of the Office of Naval Intelligence on the side.

"Good, you've arrived." affirmed the man, "We don't have long so I'll make it quick, inside these crates are a very special addition to the armoury, whereas all the other weapons in this room are built to accommodate the abilities of the average marine these are Spartan munitions. All are very similar to their regular counterparts, just scaled up to accommodate a special 9mm round. Shotguns similarly have a larger shells. Anyway, they need little introduction since they all operate the same as their regular versions. Good luck Spartans." the man then left the room, leaving them to examine the new weapons.

Steven strode over and tore the top off of a crate labelled MA6B. The rifle he lifted out was significantly larger then the MA5B but otherwise seemed the same, the weight wasn't an issue, particularly from him since his somewhat beneficial incident during the augmentations.

All the others crowded around and Steven replaced the rifle, drawing out a monumental shotgun, he racked the slide with a satisfying clack. Around him all the other Spartans were drawing the new rifles, pistols and shotguns, attaching them to the magnetic plates on their armour. Placing the shotgun on his back Steven grabbed a pistol and put it on the plate on his hip.

From a second crate he grabbed magazines already loaded from his pistol and a bandolier of cartridges from his shotgun. He also grabbed a few grenades and flash bangs from the regular weapons section and placed those around his utility belt.

It wasn't long until everyone was ready and they all filed off into the drop bay. Steven noticed that team's sniper, Jun had abandoned his usual sniper rifle in favour of a beefier DMR to match that held by Maria. Emile had also chosen a shotgun while Carter and Kai had selected ARs.

It was an even tighter fit than usual in the drop pods with the new larger weapons but he managed to get in all the same. As soon as the door had locked shut a small green light illuminated, casting a faint green glow over the cramped interior of the pod.

The small screen came to life shower Carter's helmeted head, his voice coming in through the small speaker. "We'll be dropped out straight into the slipstream so prepare for a bumpy ride, once we arrive our pods should automatically align to strike the station in the same area. Once we're onboard we meet up and go from there. Remember, priority for us is to take out the reactor, let the other teams focus on the intel unless we can easily get it ourselves."

The feed cut and Steven was plunged into silence, his heart pounding in his ears. This was to be his first drop into open space from a ship in slipspace and he couldn't help but picture all the horrific ways it could end.

He pushed the thoughts aside as the green light began to flash and then turn red. He gripped the seat in a vice like grip, the metal warping under it. Suddenly, he was jerked up as the pod was spat out of the ship and into slipspace, instantly beginning to decelerate. He could vaguely see the outline of the _Lancelot_ disappearing into the haze of slipspace before he was being thrown around. His pod felt as though it was being ripped apart and he clenched his eyes shut and gritted his teeth. As suddenly as it had all started the pod stopped bucking and Steven looked out. In the distance he could see the other pods, all gliding silently through space. Much larger though was a huge L-shaped space station turning slowly in space, a dozen Covenant ships docked along the length of it including several battle cruisers and a massive destroyer.

He made a sharp intake of breath as he realised that if the ablative coating on the pods failed they would be vaporized in seconds by the awesome firepower of the small Covenant fleet. It looked as though command had been right, the small outpost was a staging area from a fleet set to assault another colony.

From the corner of his vision he saw a purple flash and another Covenant ship dropped out of slipspace, another battlecruiser, small by Covenant standards but it still had more than enough firepower to wipe out the small group of pods.

As the neared the station Steven realised with horror that one of the pods was on a course to smash straight into the Covenant ship. All the other Spartans could only watch in horror as the small pod collided with the starboard weapons cluster of the Covenant ship and instantly the whole thing went straight to hell.

The plasma lines along the length of the battlecruiser lit up a fiery purple and the tips of the sensor arrays began to glow slightly as the ship searched for the source of the damage.

A small text message appeared on his screen, "Relaying Covenant transmission." The screen flickered once, replacing the short message with the image of a concerned elite, dressed in the armour of a shipmaster.

….….….….….….….….….….….…

Vorsa 'Woramee growled angrily and thumped his control panel. "What hit us?" he roared again, determined to get an answer out of the smaller elite manning the sensor station. "Unknown shipmaster, damage corresponds to an inert object, so sign of it being propelled, possibly a rouge asteroid from the local field although that doesn't explain why the sensors missed it."

"Humans." snarled 'Woramee, "Get me a comm link to the outpost commander, then boost the scanner, see if we can find any of the vermin. Weapons, warm up the plasma reservoir and prepare to fire on my command."

The lights on the bridge changed from a cool purple to crimson as the ship entered combat alert. The main screen before 'Woramee lit up with the face of a tired and nervous elite, the outpost commander. "Vaal 'Moremee here, what's the situation." the elite half droned. "Humans", spat 'Woramee again, half wishing he could crush the inferior elite under his boot for his lack of interest. However, at the mention of humans the commander perked up. "Humans you say, I shall prepare the station for immediate threat response, I would also request you remain in the area to try and find the source."

"Of course we shall, they would only send elite troops into such a situation, perhaps even demons. There is much honour to be gained, we shall alert you of any news. 'Woramee out.

"Anything?" he barked at the elite on sensors.

"Nothing shipmaster, there seems to be nothing there. Suddenly, in several isolated areas over the surface of the space station were little puffs of fire, instantly extinguished in the vacuum. Impacts.

….….….….….….….….….….….…

Steven gulped as the final part of the transmission from the battlecruiser was translated through his headset. Whether or not the Covenant knew exactly where they were was irrelevant, the outpost was aware of an impending attack, although the commander had seemed a little slow so with any luck they could strike before the station was fully prepare, after all the Covenant was used to being attacked.

As he neared the space station the small thrusters on his pod kicked in, slowing him just enough not to be crushed when he hit. He clenched himself for impact.

The pod buckled as it drove into the hull and the shaped charge on the tip detonated, blasting a hole for the pod. As he clambered free of the wrecked pod, grabbing his weapons from their slots in the pod he looked behind him.

A slight blue flash appeared across the hole, energy shields kicking in to cover the hole and keep the atmosphere inside the station. He activated his waypoint and waited for Carter to do the same. As soon the the little A259 marker appeared on his HUD he made for the door heading in the right direction.

A few minutes later he was the last to arrive as Beta squad gathered around the wreck if Carter's pod. They all turned to look at him and he gave a thumbs up, confirming he was ok.

"Alright ladies and gentlemen, lets go and blow shit up." Emile chuckled darkly over the comm.

**Author's Note: There we go, another chapter. Next chapter will be a combat chapter, promise. Longest chapter yet to try and make up for the slow updates. Remember, reviews means updates!**


	11. Chapter 11

**The Boom Factor: September 18th 2534**

**Location: Onboard Covenant Outpost Station**

Even as Emile finished his sentence there was a loud thumping from the door at the other end of the room and the door seemed to start melting.

Carter motioned for the team to provide covering fire as Emile, the team's close quarters specialist moved in. Steven slug his shotgun and brought up his oversized pistol, lining it up with the door.

The door glowed a bright violet in the centre for a second more and then exploded inwards. Five Spartans poured fire into the hole as the Covenant response unit began to pour in. The stumbling grunts fell over there dead brethren and the floor became slick with blood. Only the occasional plasma bolt flew through the blown out doorway as grunt after grunt waddled through.

Just as it seemed victory was assured the bullets began ricocheting off some invisible barrier in the smoke until finally a row of jackals, their personal shields overlapping to form a solid barrier.

Carter flicked on his red light and the team ceased fire. Just as the jackals passed through the doorway and fanned out slightly, still careful to stay overlapped a pair of elites strode through behind, one red, one blue.

The red one, clearly the senior, pointed and roared at them. It pulled a grenade from it's belt but before it had a chance to hurl it at the Spartans, it's head disappeared in a cloud of purple gore. The other elite whirled around to stare into a faceless gold visor.

The alien didn't even have time to think before another oversized shotgun blast parted it's head. The jackals swung around, trying to protect themselves from this previously unseen threat.

Unfortunately from them this maneuver opened them up to another volley of gunfire from the other Spartans who quickly downed the birdlike aliens, purple blood spattered on the inside of their shields.

Carter nodded respectfully to Emile as they filed past, "Nice use of camo." Jun complimented as he past. "Brains and brawn." Maria chuckled, lightly running her hand over Emile's upper arm.

They made their way in silence through the corridors of the station, barely knowing which way to go, simply hunting for a data terminal until finally, they found one.

Kai, the tech specialist came over and plugged the datapad into the terminal and set the intrusion software ONI had provided going. After just a few moments the pad bleeped and Kai withdrew it and examined the data. "This way." he said, beckoning for them to follow.

"Sir", Kai called to Carter, "Our route to the reactor doesn't go near the central data bank but if we head to a hangar not too far off out route out we can easily get in, just in case the other team fails to get the intel."

"Good.", replied Carter, "Can't hurt to have more than one set of data."

As they rounded a corner a single elite with three grunts running to keep up with it was heading there way.

With lightening reactions Steven drew his combat knife and leapt at the elite slamming his knife into the side of it's head and embedding the blade through the skull and into the wall as he pushed it deeper in. He grabbed his pistol and fire a shot into the heads of two of the grunts and brought the butt down on the head of the third with such for that it almost pushed the whole head inside the body of the diminutive alien.

Turning back to the elite he examined his handiwork. The body was hung from the wall by the knife and as he yanked it free the corpse fell with a wet thud, leaving a trail of purple slime on the wall where it had slid down.

Looking back at the others Steven saw that they had been stunned by the speed and brutality of his actions, in truth so was he. He pushed his concerns aside, this was war, either kill or be killed and he had no plan for the latter.

"Remind me not to piss you off." breathed Jun as he passed, briefly glancing at the crushed head of the elite.

They moved past and on down the corridor, weapons held at the ready. As they moved through the corridors Steven was struck by the Covenant design, it was just as he had seen it in the games, sheets of purple metal with slight gaps in between, lights from the ship's electronics visible through the clearly deliberate gaps at the edges.

The next door opened to reveal a large hangar, packed with Covenant. The Spartans stopped short, eyes wide at the dozens of aliens scattered about the room, all turning to look at them with anger burning in their eyes.

The nearest elite warbled something unintelligible and angry sounding and raised it's weapon letting lose and stream of plasma bolts at them. Diving away the team split up, Maria and Jun moving back to try and provide some kind of support fire for the others while Steven and Emile charged in, assaulting the enemy with every weapon at their disposal.

Carter and Emile moved forwards a little more cautiously, engaging the enemy at the optimum range for their rifles.

Steven brought down the butt of his shotgun, crushing a grunt's body and then swung around blasting out the chest of a nearby jackal. He leapt up just dodging a deadly stream of plasma form an elite. He swung around in mid air, bringing the shotgun to bear and let loose. The blast rocked it back and it's shield flared a bright blue as they absorbed the kinetic energy of the blast.

It roared and lunged forwards again, plasma dagger coming to life from the back of it's hand. The alien leapt at him, aiming for his throat but it was too slow, Steven ducked to one side rolling away and swinging back round to bring his foot up into contact the chest plate of elite's armour. It crumpled under the tremendous force of the blow, breaking most of the alien's ribs as it crushed inwards.

The elite staggered backwards, a shocked look on it's face until it finally collapsed, clutching it's chest as blood oozed from between it's mandibles.

With his opponent down Steven turned back to the battle and resumed knocking grunts to the ground with a heavy fist or blowing their heads off with his oversized pistol. Finally, the last elite fell and the hangar was theirs.

Breathing heavily Carter turned to Kai, "How come you didn't mention the fact we were going to have to get through a hangar?" he said, clearly irritated by his friend's failure to notice the rather significant obstacle. "Sorry sir." Kai mumbled, unwilling to look directly at Carter.

Clearly still unimpressed Carter turned away and began to stalk off before turning back, "Are you going to show us the way or not?" he yelled at Kai who meekly headed off after him.

The rest of the journey to the reactor was uneventful save for the occasional patrol which was swiftly and effectively dealt with.

Finally Kai motioned for them to halt. "This is it." he said, looking rather pointedly at Carter who either didn't notice or chose to ignore it.

"Alright, Kai, set up the intrusion software to open the door on my mark, Maria you're the fastest of us, I want you to use the active camo and get in as soon as the doors open, keep low because they'll be pouring fire into the doorway once it opens. Then you find a way to distract them so we can get in. Understood?" Carter asked, looking around for any questions. With none raised he nodded and headed off around the corner with everyone except Maria in tow.

Once they were round the corner Carter flashed his acknowledgement light and activated the door. While the couldn't see her they all knew Maria would have made it in despite the heavy fire the could hear being poured in through the door.

After several more seconds there was silence as the Covenant ceased fire to examine what had happened. The footsteps heading towards them couldn't be mistaken, a single grunt. In the background they could just about make out a slight sound of metal hitting metal and then a loud crack followed by cries of surprise and pain from the Covenant as a grenade appeared amongst them and detonated.

As one the five Spartans charged down the corridor, already raining fire down on the remaining Covenant. Finally, as the last elite fell, Maria deactivated her stealth and fired a single round into the head of an elite that was trying to get up despite a leg it had lost to a grenade.

"Kai, set the reactor to overload and give it a ten minutes delay. Jun, contact the other teams and let them know how long they have." as Kai set to work preparing the reactor to blow a loud thud echoed from the doorway.

Stooping to get under the doorway was a massive Hunter. Steven's heart skipped a beat as the behemoth straightened up and let loose an almighty roar, fuel rod cannon already charging as the second Hunter entered, crouched behind it's shield.

"Duck!" roared Steven, camouflage already activated as he darted around to try and get a shot at the rear of the alien monstrosities. He heard the roar as the fuel rod cannon discharged and slammed into the ground where he had been just moments before.

All the members of Beta had gone into camo and the Hunters edged around, always keeping their backs to the wall, ready to defend themselves.

Out of nowhere a grenade rolled between and exploded, however, it didn't even dent the heavy metal plates the protected them. Knowing that the longer they waited the more likely it was that one of the Hunters might actually see them Steven decided to make his move.

He edged silently around the room making is way behind the behemoths.

Raising his shotgun he fired directly into the quivering mass of worms that made up the back of one Hunter. The beast roared in pain and swung around to try and kill it's attacker but it was too slow, Steven dodged the clumsy swing with ease even as the creature fell with a tremendous thump.

Out of nowhere a huge black slab crossed his vision and smashed straight into him, he felt ribs crack and the breath was forced from his body. He slammed into the wall behind him and slid to the ground in a pained daze.

He looked up slightly and could see the second Hunter approaching menacingly, shield raised to crush him even as it's fuel rod cannon charged. Steven had killed it's bond mate and now it was hungry for revenge.

The alien would die disappointed, however, as an overwhelming amount of firepower surged into it's back, shredding the worms that made up it's innards and almost chopping it in half. It collapsed to the ground, lead still pouring into it form five flashing sources. Finally, the firing relented and the creature had been turned into a pile of steaming orange mush by the barrage.

The rest of Beta decloaked and ran over to him, Jun, their medic pulling his helmet off to inspect his face.

As Jun looked down it didn't look good, Steven was deathly pale. The Hunter had likely half crushed Steven's ribcage and he undoubtedly had internal bleeding. He pulled a canister of biofoam from his pack and stuck it into the port on his friend's armour.

There was a faint hiss as he emptied the canister and injected Steven with a stimulant. He would need to have some serious surgery when after they escaped but it would hold him together for now.

Steven groaned as Emile offered him his hand and helped him to his feet. His insides felt as though they had been torn apart and then put back together in the wrong order but he could at least stand and hold a weapon.

"Kai, set the timer for 15 minutes, we'll need longer to get Steven out. Jun, update the others on the situation and tell them we can't get the intel, they'll have to do it." Carter ordered, already heading for the exit.

Steven was surprised at Carter's lack of concern but he guessed it was part of being a leader, not showing too much concern or emotion, he had to stay focused the sake of everyone else.

With the help of Emile Steven followed the others for the exit to head for the hangar in search of a ride off the doomed space station.

**Author's Note: See what happens when I'm on top of my homework and more importantly motivated by your reviews! Two new chapters in two days, hope this makes up for the previously slow rate of progress. As usual more reviews means more updates and I'm always open to your input for the story.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Our Ride Out Of Here: September 18th 2534**

**Location: Onboard Covenant Outpost Station**

The pain inside his chest was slowly returning as Steven was helped down the corridor by Emile.

As they rounded the corner a pair of grunts were running headlong towards them, terrified by the wiling sirens and flashing crimson lights as the station warned of it's impending destruction.

Around the next bend was a more ornate door with purple lights around the edge. "Sir, I think this is the entrance to the escape pod bays, we could use one to get out, it'll be a lot easier than trying to take another hangar, especially with Steven injured." Kai suggested, stopping at the entrance, datapad in hand.

"Fine, but make it quick." Carter ordered. Kai knelt down and keyed in the datapad and the door hissed open. Inside was a row of pod bays, all empty save one. Inside the room was an elite clad in gold armour moving along the the row jettisoning each pod in turn.

The alien swung around to look at the intruders and narrowed it's eyes, roaring angrily and pulling out a small sliver handle form which shot an energy sword. It raised the blade into an en guard position and charged. "I got this." Emile grunted, passing Steven over to Jun.

Emile drew is combat knives, the two blades glistening as they twirled in his hands. Emile was glad that he had applied a special diamond edge to the blades to keep them sharp and the energy sword was brought down onto one blade sparking as it bounced off the diamond edge.

Emile spun one leg around, landing a solid kick onto the alien's face, it staggered back momentarily dazed. Even as Emile lunged forwards, going for the alien's neck it recovered and easily parried, swinging the blade back to hit Emile. He tried to dodge but the blade caught his upper arm, leaving a steaming burnt line across the armour and into his arm.

Emile fell back, clutching his arm, one knife dropped. The elite continued to press the advantage, bearing down on the injured Spartan. Emile continued to back off, moving around the edge of the room until he came to a stop, seemingly trapped by the nearby corner. The elite seemed to grin, teeth glistening in the purple light and lunged forwards. Emile divided to one side and the elite went soaring past, straight into the last escape pod.

Emile swung back around, punching the release button and the pod shot out into open space, taking the furious elite with it.

Emile turned back to the others, his head low. He had just destroyed their escape route. Carter sighed, "Lets head for the hangar, try and get a ride from there." He turned and headed out of the room. Steven turned back to look at Emile and called, "You had no choice."

The attempt and consoling his friend seemed to have little effect and Steven knew that Emile would regret his actions for the rest of his life if any of them now died.

With only four minutes remaining they reached the hangar, luckily for them the inside was chaos as elites tried to organise the troops even as others contradicted their orders. Occasionally a dropship would leave the hangar, evacuating some of the remaining Covenant personnel.

Carter pointed to the nearest Spirit dropship and motioned for the others to follow him, they all activated their active camouflage and hurried after him. Once they reached the dropship, carefully avoiding walking into any of the aliens running around the hangar the climbed aboard, Maria and Emile helping to get him aboard while Carter headed for the cockpit.

Even as Maria and Emile climbed aboard the dropship jerked up, knocking their camo out. The Covenant below looked up at the slow moving transport and opened fire when they saw the crew. Maria and Jun took up positions on each of the transport's folding hatches, firing on the Covenant below with pinpoint precision.

Carter swung the dropship around, aiming for the hangar exit and Emile got to work on the turret controls, raining down plasma on the unfortunate Covenant. The side hatches swung up and sealed.

The engines thrummed and the Spirit lurched forwards into open space. Steven slid down the support he had been leaning against to lie on the floor, he felt cold and tired.

Jun rushed over and pulled his helmet off, "Just hold on, we're almost out of this." he checked the team bio and saw that Steven's blood pressure was low, if they didn't get him out soon he might not make it.

"Maria, go and check on Carter, find out what's happening." She ran past him, heading for the cockpit. As she came up behind Carter she found him desperately trying to avoid being hit by a perusing banshee, even as Emile tried desperately to blast it away.

The dropship shuddered as the banshee fired, Carter grunted and wrestled with the controls. Maria glanced at the rear view screen and saw that the ships docked with the space station were slowly coming to life and their crews tried to get away in time.

They were too late. There was a white flash from the centre of the station, where the reactor was and a huge shockwave burst forth, obliterating the station and the ships around it.

"Brace for impact!" Maria screamed, grabbing onto the bulkhead to steady herself. The shockwave rocketed out from the centre in all directions. As it soared towards them the dropship shook like a leaf in a hurricane. Everyone was knocked to the ground, Carter still wrestling with the controls, still clipped into the pilot's seat.

Steven grunted in pain as he was thrown into the wall of the dropship, his ribs felt as though they were on fire and he cried out as he fell back to the ground.

Maria dragged herself to her feet and looked back at the view screen to see yet more bad news, even as the EMP from the nuclear detonation that had destroyed the space station and the fleet docked with it one final ship, the same Covenant battlecruiser that had been hit by a drop pod earlier was bearing down on them, plasma line glowing red hot.

Maria was half grateful when Carter shut off the power, protecting them from the EMP as it went over them. When he switched the power back on she saw that the battlecruiser was still there, slowly gliding towards them like a shark in the darkness. The plasma turrets along the flanks of the warship glowed like angry eyes in the black of space.

The UNSC destroyer _Lancelot_ emerged from slipspace as it unleashed it's wave of wave missiles and a pair of MAC rounds slamming into the nearby Covenant battlecruiser. To the surprise of all onboard, and those onboard the tiny dropship that was the subject of the battlecruiser's aggression there were no shields protecting the massive ship.

Fire poured from the gaping hole in it's side, extinguished in the emptiness of space. The ship turned to try and get some revenge on the ship that had crippled it. Another salvo of missiles cut through to the centre of the ship and the reactor overloaded, blasting the core out of the ship, sending it floating dead in space with just a few fires still flickering before they too were extinguished in the vacuum of space.

The tiny dropship thrummed to life around Steven as Carter fired up the engines and headed for the destroyer that floated towards them.

As soon as they set down in the hangar the hatches on the dropship were lowered and Steven was rushed out, heading straight for the medical bay. As he was hurried along on a stretcher medics bustled around him all the way to the operating theatre. Once the door was in sight the nearest medic stuck a needle into his arm and within moments his vision narrowed, and finally went dark.

Four members of Beta squad sat in the waiting room adjacent to the operating theatre in varying to degrees of worry. Carter sat in a chair nearest to the door displaying no visible signs of concern save for his nervous habit, tapping his foot on the floor. Emile sat by Maria with one arm around her shoulder, trying to comfort her despite his own worry.

Jun sat alone off in one corner of the room, his head in his hands whispering quietly to himself in an almost mystical tone of voice, praying for his friend. Noticeably missing was Kai who had immediately left them as soon as they had docked and disappeared off elsewhere, most likely blaming himself for what had happened.

They had been sat there for three hours in total silence, just keeping vigil when the doctor finally emerged from the operating theatre. "It was a lot of work and he'll be out of commission for a while yet but he'll live." he said, smiling grimly.

The was a collective sigh of relief and they stood to go in, "I'm afraid you can't go in yet, give him a while to rest. Doctor's orders." Hanging there heads slightly the four Spartans turned and left, still feeling better about things.

They headed to the armoury and the techs stripped them of the armour. As soon as they were finished they headed for the bunk room. As soon as they were in bed they were asleep, relieved that Steven was alive and exhausted after the battle.

….….….….….….….….…...

Sat alone on the observation deck Kai stared out into the blackness of slipspace as the _Lancelot_ bore it's way through space.

He put his head in his hands, yet he again he had failed, he had almost let Steven die. Despite what the others would say he could only blame himself. He had tried to get them use the escape pods which in itself would have been a stupid idea since they could easily have been destroyed by a banshee.

As it was he had forced Emile to take on that elite and then lose the escape pods, wasting time which could have been saved if they had gone straight to the hangar. Thanks to him Steven could be dead.

Sometimes he just felt so useless, it was always him who let the team down, always him who made mistakes and got other people injured.

It was his fault that Steven had been critically injured, that Emile had been injured and he would probably continue to screw up. He stood up with a groan and returned to his room, he didn't want the others to see what a mess he was so he would have to continue to put a brave face on.

**Author's Note: Well there another chapter, a bit shorter but that's the third one in three days. Also, hope those of you who thought Kai seemed a bit overly happy around the others, here's the reason. Still, any more ideas you guys have are welcome and please remember, reviews means more chapters!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Problems: September 30th 2534**

**Location: Onboard UNSC _Lancelot_**

It was like waking up for the first and last time, his head throbbed and yet the rest of his body felt numb and painless. He winced slightly as he tried to move, pain flaring throughout his upper body.

"Try not to move." a voice called from the darkness. Steven forced his eyes open, replacing the darkness with overwhelming light. He blinked to try and focus his eyes, "Who's there?" he asked, his voice sounding strained and hoarse. His eyes finally focused and he looked around to see a woman stood next to him. "It's alright", she said, "you've been in a medically induced coma for two weeks while your body recovered from your injuries. Your lucky to be alive, your ribcage had crumpled and there was bone peppering your lungs. Seems you Spartans are built tough." she smiled and turned to leave, "You're free to go whenever you feel up to it."

Steven sighed as she left and looked around, beside his chair was his uniform, neatly stacked as ever. He pushed himself up off the bed, doing his best to ignore the pain in his chest. He swung his legs over the edge and stood up, grabbing the clothes and pulling them on.

He left the medical centre feeling strangely happy, presumably a result of several weeks on high level drugs. The door to the bunk room slid open and he entered to find himself in the middle of an argument.

"It was not your fault!" yelled Emile, shoving Kai against the wall. Kai looked deeply disinterested and sad. "Yes it was, if I hadn't suggested the escape pods it wouldn't have happened." Kai retorted, his voice lacking any sign of the passion Emile had.

They both spun around when he entered and looked at him. Kai instantly looked sheepish and hurried off to the door, beating a hasty retreated. Emile sighed and sat down heavily on the bed. "What's going on?" he asked, sitting down next to his friend.

Emile looked up at him, "The fool has spent the last two weeks blaming himself for what happened at the outpost. He barely talks to any of us, he barely eats, he just sits on the observation deck all day staring into slipspace."

"That's crazy", Steven replied, "what happened wasn't his fault, it was no one's fault, except maybe that Hunter." Steven frowned, "I'll go and talk to him, see if I can get him to see sense."

He stood up and left the room, heading for the observation deck. He walked down the corridor to the lift, thoughts whizzing through his head. What was going on? Kai had seemed so happy before, and now he was sat around moping all day. It was madness that he blamed himself, it was no one's fault that he had gotten so badly injured, they were fighting a war, if everyone blamed themselves for everything that happened things would be a lot worse.

He thought back to his time in the Halo universe, after just three years it already felt so long since he had been home. The time had flown by and this was the first lull in activity he had had to reflect. He wondered what had happened to his family, his friends. Was he another one of those kids that ran away or got abducted?

He couldn't help but wonder what he would do if the opportunity to return home came up, would he stay here with his new life, his new friends? Or would he leave it all behind and go home.

His train of thought was cut short as the lift pinged and the doors slid back, giving him a view of the observation deck. At the far end of the room, just sat on a bench staring out at the stars was Kai. Steven approached slowly, careful to keep his steps even and he breath quiet, trying to hide the nerves he was feeling.

He sat down next to Kai and looked at him, his eyes looked distant, his face gaunt. "Hey." Steven said, not sure how best to start the conversation, "Look, I know you blame yourself for what happened but it was no one's fault. You did your best and that's what matters. It could have been any of us that got hit. Even if it was someone's fault, trying to point the blame isn't going to help, we have to put this behind us and keep going."

Kai still sat there, silent, his face a mask. "I just wanted you to know that no one blames you Kai." he stood to leave but Kai turned to look at him and as Steven looked back he almost winced at the sorrow in his friend's eyes. "It's not just this, I'm just generally useless, the oddball, I have no special skills to offer the team, I'm not particularly skilled in combat. I'm the tech guy but I can't even read a damn map." he turned away again, his voice bitter, "Things would be better if I wasn't here."

"No one else thinks that." Steven said and he headed back to the lift, leaving Kai to his turmoil of thoughts.

As he walked back along the corridor to the bunk room the intercom buzzed to life, "Will all Spartans please report to the briefing room." Steven turned, instantly reacting to the summons. Behind him the bunk room door opened and Emile and Maria exited, the former hastily tucking his shirt back in, their faces red and flustered.

Steven shook his head, a slight smirk on his face. He still found it hard to imagine Emile with a girlfriend, although the Emile he knew was nothing like the one in the games. The two joined him in the lift, both had a very clear poker face on.

The lift pinged and the exited just down the corridor from the briefing room. When they entered the other two Spartan teams onboard were already present as were Carter and Jun. They nodded in his direction when they saw him and he went and sat next to Jun. Not long after Kai entered, his head hung low and he sat a few spaces away from the others.

Haverson gave him a strange look but began regardless. "Spartans, word has just come down from HighCom that the Spartan IIIs are to be gathered in preparation for a major operation, codename Operation: PROMETHEUS. You will all meet aboard the UNSC _Trafalgar_ when we rendez-vous with them at Reach. That is all but will Beta squad remain behind."

The other two teams left, Shane shooting them a look, he had never quite got over losing top honours. Once they had left Haverson addressed them, "You six will not be joining in with the rest of the IIIs, the Colonel has something special in mind. When we arrive at Reach you will be transferred to the UNSC Prowler, _Razor's Edge_ for a further briefing. In the meantime you must gather your belongings and be ready to leave, we arrive in under an hour. Dismissed."

As soon as the lieutenant had finished they rose and left the room, Kai skulked off from the rest but the others gathered outside to discuss this turn of events. "Why are we being separated?" asked Maria, her faced wrinkled with concern.

"Maybe they don't think we can enter combat because of Kai?" suggested Emile, distain evident in his voice. "They said Ackerson had something planned, we'll just have to wait and see." Carter said, "Lets just head back and get packed."

They all headed back to their room, Steven silently thanking whatever god was watching over him that that they were avoiding PROMETHEUS.

It was only when he got back to his room and began packing that he realised how few possessions he had. They didn't even fill a duffel bag. He looked down at his ID from home and smiled slightly, he looked so different in the photograph, taken a lifetime ago.

"What's that?" Jun asked, looked down at what he was holding. Steven quickly thrust it into the duffel bag and zipped it shut. "Nothing!" he blurted, Jun shut him a strange look and raised his hands in defense, "Alright, no harm meant, we all have our secrets, I don't blurt out mine so you needn't either." he patted Steven on the back and smiled.

As Jun walked off Steven sighed in relief, that could have been difficult to explain. Steven had to admit he was surprised Ackerson hadn't tried to contact him about whether PROMETHEUS was a good idea and Steven intended to tell the Colonel exactly how bad an idea it was when he saw him.

He decided to take a shower so he gathered his wash bag and made his way to the showers. Fifteen minutes later the water shut off and he was left stood there with water dripping from his face. He grabbed his towel and got out, dried himself and had a shave.

Behind him the door slid open and Maria walked in, she smiled at him. There was silence for a few minutes until she finally spoke, "Steven, I'm really worried about Kai, he still hans't spoken to any of us. He just keeps muttering to himself about how useless he is and how he doesn't fit in with us."

Steven frowned, Kai had been stuck in a deep depression for two weeks, only eating enough food to keep himself alive and completely cutting himself off from his friends. "I am too, I don't know what we're going to do, I tried talking to him but the guy seems beyond help. Maybe we should speak to someone about him, Ackerson maybe?"

"Hmm, perhaps." Maria replied, her brow furrowed in thought, "We'll need to tread carefully."

She turned back to her things and Steven finished up and left.

It wasn't long after he got back to his room that the intercom buzzed to life, "Spartans please report to the hangar immediately. We are about to arrive at Reach." It cut off and the members of Beta grabbed their things and headed out, even Kai who had turned up while Steven had been out to pack his things.

When they arrived in the hangar bay it was deserted save for two Pelicans and Lieutenant Haverson. He smiled grimly as they entered the hangar, he pointed to the left hand Pelican, "This is your, I may not see you again so I wanted to tell you it's been an honour." He extended his hand to Carter who shook firmly, "The honour was all ours Sir." He saluted and marched up the ramp and into the dropship.

The others followed him in and strapped into the jump seats along the walls. Carter fired up the engines and gently eased them forwards out of the hangar and into the space above Reach. All around them massive ships glided silently past, lights twinkling along there length. As he looked forwards through the side view port Steven could see the distinctive shape of a Prowler, keeping well away from the majority of traffic, waiting for them.

The dropship glided gently into the tiny hangar and touched down. The rear ramp slid down and the members of Beta squad disembarked. Standing before them was a man dressed in ONI uniform with the insignia of a Captain on his lapel and the name Leary written across his chest.

The six Spartans snapped into a stiff salute which the Captain returned, "Welcome aboard Spartans, your quarters are just through the door on the left." he pointed to one of the exits from the hangar.

Carter nodded and lead them off. Their new bunk room was smaller than it had been on the _Lancelot_ although their beds were slightly more reinforced to better cope with their weight.

Within fifteen minutes they were all unpacked and Kai had hurried off again, duffel bag in hand. Not long after Maria stretched on her bed, dislodging herself from beside Emile, "I'll be back soon." she whispered, kissing him on the cheek.

She headed out of the room and into the corridor, opposite was a door with the words _Washroom_ printed across it in white letters. She went over and pushed the door open.

To her left was a row of showers and to her right a row of sinks. She could hear the end shower running and called out, "Is that you Kai?" No reply.

She sighed quietly and to the toilet. She was about to leave when she realised that there was none of the usual splashings of someone in the shower. Assuming the shower had been left on she headed down the row of showers to shut it off.

As she rounded the corner her eyes widened and she screamed, backing up so fast she bumped into the wall. Still unable to believe her eyes she ran from the room in terror, back into the bunk room. She ran in and collapsed onto her bunk, tears streaming down her face.

Emile leapt up from his bunk to find out what was the matter, "The shower." she moaned, fresh sobs wracking her body.

"Come on." Carter ordered, beckoning to Jun and Steven who followed him out.

They entered the washroom and followed the row of showers along. When he saw it, Steven's blood ran cold.

Suspended from the pipes that ran along the ceiling was a rope, hanging from that rope, eyes wide and vacant, was Kai.

**Author's Note: Wow, this was a tough one to write. Please review.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Last Respects: October 2nd 2534**

**Location: Onboard UNSC _Razor's Edge_**

"He spent all his days fighting for the good of humanity, to save lives. His loss is a tragedy. He will always be remembered, in our hearts and in our minds. Goodbye old friend." Carter laid the wreath on Kai's coffin and took a step back. They were all dressed in their best dress uniform and their was a simultaneous clack as they all came to a stiff attention as the orderly loaded the coffin into the Prowler's mine dispenser and activated the mechanism, jettisoning the capsule in the never ending darkness of interstellar space.

The five Spartans stood there for several minutes, unwilling to break the silence and accept that their friend was truly lost to them. Finally, Carter sighed and left, the other's followed suit.

In the two days since Kai had killed himself there had been a minor investigation into the death and, much to the fury of all the remaining Betas, it had been put down to mental instability and an incapability to deal with perceived failure. Ackerson had greeted them the previous day and paid his respects. The Colonel had at least had the sense to leave the squad to grieve in their own way.

Not long after the funeral was over the intercom buzzed and they were summoned to the small briefing room in the stern of the Prowler. After so long onboard a Destroyer the Prowler felt tiny to Steven as they made their way down the corridor. He looked up remembering that space was at such a premium they shared headspace with the pipes and wires the powered the ship. He looked back down, the sight of the pipes bringing back painful memories.

They finally arrived at the briefing room to find Ackerson waiting for them. They sat down and waited expectantly. Finally, Ackerson nodded thoughtfully and began to speak, "I gathered your team here for a reason and I'm afraid that despite recent events", he shifted uncomfortably, "You still have a job to. This should spur you on, if it weren't for the Covenant Kai would still be alive, turn your grief to anger and aim that fury at the Covenant." he stood straighter as he gathered his thoughts.

"Not long after the Spartan IIIs went active Lieutenant Commander Ambrose came up with an initiative, he suggested that the team which gained Top Honours from each class of Spartans would be made into an elite team, more akin to the Spartan IIs. That team is you, despite your recent loss your are still a key part of the war effort and about to become even more important. This Prowler is current taking us to back to Onyx where you will be issued with new equipment and a new purpose. Whereas the other IIIs are out carrying out top secret missions you will be on the front lines, taking the fight to the Covenant."

He cleared his throat and continued, "When Lieutenant Commander Ambrose filed the suggestion to me it was codenamed the NOBLE Initiative and so I have decided that to give this team the fresh start it sorely needs you are henceforth to be known as Noble team. We arrive at Onyx in thirty minutes, pack your things and be ready to leave. Except for 294 you are dismissed."

The four members of the newly named Noble team stood and left, leaving Steven alone with Ackerson. The Colonel leant back against the wall waiting for the door to close. "Why did you not warn me this would happen?!" he shouted, eyes wild.

"Thanks to you the best Spartan III team is in tatters and now…"

"Shut up!" Steven roared, "I didn't know, if I had do you think I would have let it happen, let one of my best friends die, do you really think I would let Kai lynch himself?"

Ackerson backed up slightly, intimidated by the seven foot tall Spartan towering over him. "Stand down soldier!" Ackerson barked, doing his best to remain confident. Steven back off slightly, still not taking his eyes of Ackerson.

"I'm sorry", he said, "It's just that his whole thing has been a disaster, I've got Parangosky breathing down my neck for an explanation. I need to know, is Noble going to work, is it worth sticking my neck out so far I look like a damn giraffe?" he sunk down onto the bench.

"Noble will become one of the best fighting forces in the UNSC, easily equal to the IIs." Steven said, sitting down beside the Colonel, "As long as you give us the support and resources we need."

"Give us the chance to prove ourselves and you won't be disappointed." Steven stood and left the room, leaving Ackerson to his thoughts.

Steven slowly walked down the corridor in the direction of the bunk room, his head spinning with recent events, he was in Noble team. He had always wondered when the team was founded and now he just wished it was under better circumstances. Still, Ackerson had been right, they needed to turn their grief to anger and fight to avenge Kai's death.

He walked into the bunk room to find everyone with a similar expression on their face, resolve. They wouldn't let this be the end for them, it would be a new beginning.

Jun, however, sat apart from the rest. He was on his bed in the corner of the room, his legs crossed and his eyes closed, a slight humming noise coming from him. As Steven came over Jun's eyes flickered open, that same indescribable emotion playing across his face. "You okay?" Steven asked nervously.

Jun smiled slightly and replied, "I pray to God for forgiveness future."

"What do you mean?" Steven asked, a quizzical look passing across his features at the cryptic reply. "In the past I blamed myself for my family's death but I have learnt to let go of this, now not only have the Covenant taken my family from me they have also taken one of my closest friends. I pray that God will forgive me for what I am going to do to them, I pray for him to show mercy on them, because I cannot." he explained, closing his eyes and returning to his humming.

Steven blinked once and turned away, unsure what to make of what was, by Jun's standards, and outburst of emotion. Steven went back to his footlocker and packed his things back into his duffel bag. It was not long after he had finished that they ship shuddered slightly, they had arrived.

His thoughts were confirmed as the intercom blared to life, "Noble team please report to the hangar bay." It clicked off and they all grabbed their things, hurrying for the hangar.

When they arrived Ackerson was waiting for them, along with a single Pelican. "Noble, we got here at the right time, a Spartan trainee team went missing on an exercise not long ago and haven't been heard from since, Lieutenant Commander Ambrose has requested you mount a search team and head out into the jungle, anything tough enough to take down one of these teams is more than a match for standard UNSC personnel. Your armour is in the Pelican, kit up on your way down, good luck."

Carter nodded and they sprinted up the ramp into the Pelican, Carter jumped into the pilot's seat and ran up the engines, lifting the Pelican off the ground even as the rear hatch swung shut. The four members of Noble fitted their armour in record time, each helping the others be as fast as possible. Once Steven had his on he headed up to the cockpit and slid into the co-pilot chair, Carter jumped up and headed back to kit up.

As the Pelican roared down through the atmosphere the comm buzzed to life and Ackerson's voice came through the speakers, "I'm uploading the co-ordinates into your navicomputer now, there should be a clearing nearby. Land there and search the area for any signs of missing team and be prepared for as yet unidentified hostiles, you'll be kept informed of any developments."

A single waypoint overlaid a map of the surface and Steven banked the Pelican to head for it. As they got lower Steven could make out a trail of smoke rising from the jungle, "Carter, get up here!" he called back.

As Carter came up behind him he looked at the situation, "Bring us and land us as near as you can." he ordered, his voice as confident as ever.

As they came closer Steven could just make out a small clearing a few hundred metres from the source of the smoke and he gently lowered the Pelican into the gap. He shut down the engines and headed back, grabbing an MA6B from from the rack by the cockpit entrance. The rear ramp swung down and the Spartans headed out, fanning around the Pelican to secure the perimeter.

With their LZ secured Carter motioned for them to head into the jungle to the source of the smoke. When they arrived a sorry sight greeted their eyes. The smoke was pouring from a hole in the ground leading down into an underground tunnel. Next to the hole were five charred bodies wearing the remains of training armour. "Sir, there's one missing. Spartan teams always have six members." Jun said, wincing slightly when he remembered they only had five members.

"Spread out, search the area for any sign of the missing trainee." he turned and headed off into the jungle, eyes sweeping the area for any sign of movements.

After a few minutes of searching around in the undergrowth Steven found a clear sign of movement, several twigs at around head height had been snapped and forced aside, although to his surprise there were no footprints. He followed the lines of broken twigs in a zig zag pattern for several minutes before the realised what it was, a search pattern. He reached the end of the trail and suddenly the memory clicked, no footprints, that meant flying enemies and the only enemies like that on Onyx would be… the Sentinels.

A whirring sound from behind him confirmed his suspicion and he spun around to stare right at the angular machine. It was a sphere, similar to a Forerunner monitor, yet it had three booms rotating around the sphere and a single golden eye gleamed a molten gold.

The eye began to glow brightly and Steven leapt to one side as a bright beam of pure energy shot past him, cutting a swathe in the jungle and leaving a smoking crater where he had been stood. He fired his rifle at the Sentinel and it's shields popped up, deflecting the bullets with ease. He instantly remembered, bullets didn't work against the Onyx Sentinels.

He leapt forwards, straight for the machine. It tried to back away but was too slow, Steven grabbed on to one of the booms with one hand while he clenched his other hand into a fist and brought it down with speed and power only attainable by a Spartan in armour.

Even so, the thick metal only dented and the machine buzzed angrily, spinning around to try and throw him off. Desperately he grabbed onto another boom and pulled, dragging it out of position. He continued pulling until there was suddenly no resistance and the boom was torn away, the sudden lack of opposition nearly sending him flying off.

He held on grabbing onto another boom and dragged it away too, leaving the machine with a single boom from which he was hanging. He wrapped both hands around the boom and braced his legs against the main sphere and jumped with all his strength. The flew away from the Sentinel, he watched it's eye grow dim and it fell from the sky, suddenly shut down. Steve landed heavily, feet first. Gasping for breath.

It was only a few more seconds before the other members of Noble gathered around him, searching for the source of the explosion. "Some kind of machine." Steven said, straightening up, "Came out of nowhere, bullets just bounced off the shields, I had to pull it apart." he explained, gesturing to the boom still clenched in his hand.

Behind him there was a click of a safety clicking off and he spun around. Before him stood a girl, shorter than him, closer to Maria in size. A fierce look burned in her eyes as she pointed to pistol at him. "Who are you?" she demanded, her accent familiar to Steven although he couldn't place it.

"Relax, we're Spartans", he explained, " like you." her eyes widened and she lowered the pistol, slipping it back into the holster on her armour.

"We were in the middle of out final exercise, skirting around to flank the trainer's main position when Clive stepped on something and it exploded. The others were either injured or killed, then that", she kicked the remains of the Sentinel, "attacked us. I was the only one who got away."

"Don't worry", Carter said stepping up and resting a hand on her shoulder, "We'll take you back to Camp Curahee, and we'll bring your team with us."

He motioned for Emile and Jun to go and collect the bodies. They headed off into the jungle while Carter, Steven, Maria and the mysterious girl headed back to the Pelican.

An hour later they were all back at camp and Ambrose and Mendez greeted them at the landing pad. "Good to see you back." the LC said, extending a hand to Carter.

"Good to be back Sir." Carter replied, "I'm afraid this is the only survivor from the missing team, they were attacked by some kind of drone, there seems to be some kind of underground passage where the drone emerged from. The bodies are on the Pelican."

Kurt sighed, "Very well _Noble One"_ putting heavy emphasis on the title, "Go inside and get cleaned up Kat, we'll think about what we'll do later."

Steven did a double take and suddenly recognised the slightly younger Spartan, Kat, the future Noble 2.

**Author's Note: Noble Team is born, Kat appears and a new step for Steven. Remember, more reviews means more updates.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Noble Team: October 2nd 2534**

**Location: Camp Curahee, Onyx**

Ackerson strode into the armoury and the five assembled Spartans snapped to a stiff attention and saluted as he passed them. He reached a central position he returned their salutes, "At ease", he ordered and they all relaxed slightly. "As you already know the reason you are here on Onyx is to receive new equipment. First up is your armour, while the current version is good it is only a fraction of full MJONIR armour. Your new armour takes the full MJOLNIR and specialises it for particular roles. For example." he stepped over to a tall metal cylinder and flicked a switch. Instantly the metal slid back to reveal a set of armour Steven knew well, the dark blue armour was identical the armour Carter wore during Halo: Reach and as the Colonel went along, unveiling each set he listed off the specialisations. Jun's was a sniper's armour, Maria a sharpshooter, similar to Jun's but with more protection and a recon helmet, Emile's close quarters armour and finally Steven's. As the cylinder rose Steven's eyes widened.

He finally had his own customized set of MJOLNIR. The helmet was a pilot variant, the chest was a breacher, the shoulders were both EVA armour whole armour was coloured olive drab with some scrimmage around the back. He had to fight all his instincts not to start drooling at the sight of it.

"Of course", Ackerson continued, "Depending on your mission it may be necessary for you to customize more to suit the task at hand. The technicians will suit you up prior to your next mission but for now you are to report to Lieutenant Commander Ambrose for an additional briefing. Dismissed."

The Spartans snapped off quick salutes and departed, heading for the auditorium where they had first been divided into their teams. When they arrived there they found Kurt there with the slightly younger Spartan, Kat.

Even as they made to salute him Kurt waved there arms down, "Please, no formalities, this is a personnel meeting. Firstly, it's good to see you all and I must congratulate you on your battle record so far, very impressive. I was also very distressed to hear about Kai, his death is a great loss."

There was a moment of respectful silence before he continued. "However, the Colonel and I feel that a five man Spartan team is not enough, therefore I am assigning Kat here to Noble team, she better with tech than any Spartan I've seen before so make the most of her." Kat moved over rather awkwardly to stand with them.

"Secondly, Carter in recognition of your achievements and new position as Noble Leader you are now granted the rank of Lieutenant. Lead your men well. As for the rest of you, you now bear the rank of Warrant Officer. I know you'll all want to get to know your newest member so feel free to leave whenever you want."

The Lieutenant Commander turned on his heel and left the briefing room leaving the Nobles to talk.

There was an awkward silence for a few minutes, no one was sure quite how to begin the introductions. Finally, Carter spoke, "I'm Carter, welcome to the team." he stuck his hand out and she shook it. "Nice to meet you, I'm Kat. Thanks for the assist out in the jungle, I wouldn't have made it without you guys."

The old members of the team each introduced themselves and it wasn't long before the group were jelling together well.

…..…..…..…..…..….

There was a great deal of noise in the gym onboard the ONI heavy frigate _Call of Winter_. Yet again Emile and Steven had entered a sparring match. While Emile had a slight advantage on speed and technique Steven had raw size and power on his side and even when Emile's attacks hit he was barely effected.

Emile's fist jabbed forwards, striking Steven just below the ribcage, he doubled up slightly and backed off, winded slightly by the attack. He swiftly recovered and lunged forwards, Emile blocked the blow but was almost knocked off his feet by the force of it.

Just as Steven was preparing to launch another strike the intercom buzzed and Captain Arnold's voice called to them, "Noble team to the bridge." Steven sighed slightly, he had been winning. "Well fought." he said to Emile, extending his hadn and they shook. They clambered out of the ring and jogged for the bridge. When they arrived the rest of Noble was already present and the Captain looked slightly disgruntled, whether it was because he and Emile were late or because they were in their sweaty workout kit, Steven wasn't sure.

"Now that we're all here let's begin. Orders have been sent to me that Noble is to be deployed on a mission on the UNSC Colony world, New Tribute. The Covenant launched an attack on the system three days ago, it's been two since we pulled out. Since then the Covenant have set up a mobile mining operation in the surface. We need you to take it out. You'll be dropped in using SOEIVs directly onto the surface of the miner."

The bridge lights lights dimmed and the holographic board in the centre of the room lit up to show an image of the mining platform. Vaguely shaped like a pentagon with a conical spire pointing down at each corner, a thin beam of energy shooting up through each spire. In the centre sat a large armoured sphere, around which the five pylons were arrayed.

"You must destroy at least three of the pylons in order to sufficiently de-stable the platform. Lieutenant, it's your choice as to who does what but I advise you choose carefully, there's no room for error."

The lights came up and the holoboard faded, the five Spartans looking to Carter for guidance, "Kat, your our newest member, you're with me, the rest of you gather your relevant equipment and be ready to go as soon as we arrive, how long do we have Captain?" Carter asked.

"Two hours until arrival Lieutenant, dismissed." he replied.

The Spartans snapped off smart salutes and departed the bridge. Once they arrived at the armoury outside the drop bay they each grabbed their usual armaments, Carter had a rifle, Jun a sniper, Maria had a DMR and Emile had a shotgun. Steven grabbed an MA6B, he didn't fancy relying a close range weapon on the mining platform. He also noticed that Kat had also opted for a rifle, whether or not this was due to preference or mission suitability he wasn't sure.

Once they had selected their weapons they headed over to the far end of the armoury where the room had been modded to accommodate the fitting of their MJOLNIR. Around each suit stood a trio of technicians and they bustled around once the Spartans arrived, fitting them with their armour. Ten minutes and a lot of bumps in the tight confines of the room they all had their armour on and were ready to go.

They all headed into the centre of the room where a small screen displayed the view from the prow of the ship, currently black in the emptiness of slipspace.

The ship shuddered with deceleration and the screen snapped to a view in system, towards a planet almost devoid of Covenant space presence save for a few Corvettes, clearly the Covenant weren't expecting an attack in space they had already conquered.

The whole ship rumbled as the engines fired up and the ship began to head in system. The drop bay intercom buzzed to life, "Spartans, once you leave the ship you will have to use the emergency transponder built into your suit's to call us in to pick you up. Good luck." The intercom shut off and the Captain's voice faded.

The six Spartans crowded into the drop pods and strapped their weapons in beside them before they themselves strapped down and braced for the drop. Through the small glass panel in the floor Steven could see the planet below soaring past.

Finally, after what seemed like an age the small light above the pod blinked red, once, twice, three times, then green. There was a small beep and a rumbled as the pod was hurled from the _Winter_ and set hurtling down through the atmosphere.

As they passed into the atmosphere fire licked at the edges of the pod and the temperature soared, although Steven hardly felt it in his armour.

As they went through the cloud layer the massive mining platform could be seen, suddenly seeming much larger than before. Around him he could see the other drop pods, each heading for a different pylon.

When he could make out the shapes of Covenant onboard the station he braced for impact, clenching his teeth for the massive crash when he hit the metal hull. It never came.

His trajectory had been of by just enough to miss the moving platform and he was hurtling down the the glassy surface of the planet. He surveyed the area in the brief time he had but his attempts were useless, the surface was leveled, not even a single tree stood.

The pod slowed slightly, the parachute opening up to slow him down but as he smashed into the glass the impact crushed the lower half of the pod and Steven's vision descended into darkness…

**Author's Note: Noble Team's first mission hans't started well. Remember reviews, means more chapters so please review! **


	16. Chapter 16

**The Belly Of The Beast: October 4th 2534**

**Location: Surface of New Tribute**

Steven suddenly jerked awake, whacking his head into the front of the pod, denting the metal. He groaned and instinctively hit the activation panels for the emergency door release. There was a hiss and a sharp crack as the door was blasted off and Steven rolled out onto the ground.

The first thing he noticed was that it was hard and smooth, suddenly it all came back, the drop, his missing and then slamming into the glassed surface of the planet. He forced himself to stand up and was relieved when he felt no serious pains.

He headed back over to the pod a retrieved his rifle, clipping it to the magnetic section on his back. He looked off into the distance and could just about make out the shape of the mining platform, miles away now. He checked his mission clock, he had been unconscious for five hours. He dreaded to think what would happen if he didn't catch up to the others.

He began to make his way in the direction of the mining platform, breaking into a run as it still seemed to get further and further away.

His feet pounded across the surface of the planet, cracking the glass as he went and sending granules flying behind him. He felt as though he had been running for hours when he could finally make out a small trail of smoke twisting up into the sky. He stopped for a moment, considering his options, it could be a Covenant group sent to find him. They might have transport he could steal but could he take down them all armed with only an assault rifle and a few grenades? His only other option was to continue his almost pointless pursuit of the mining platform.

Deciding he desperately needed transport he headed for the smoke, still running as fast as he could, eager to try and find somewhere better than the glasslands to spend the night. As he approached the smoke his heart sank, it wasn't a Covenant patrol, there was just what looked to be a crater with something sticking out of it.

He slowed down and drew his rifle, just because it didn't look Covenant, didn't mean it was a friendly. As he got nearer he began to be able to make out more of the object in the failing light. He recognised the angular design of MJOLNIR armour and as he arrived he realised what it was, Kat had fallen from the mining complex as it went overhead and had also crashed into the ground.

He threw his rifle beside him and knelt down next to her. While her armour was battered and the hydrostatic fluid oozed from some of the joints in her armour, team bio revealed that she was still alive and with little more than some serious bruises. She had been lucky.

If she had landed any other way she could easily have broken her neck. He carefully dragged her out of the impact crater and placed her on charred ground. There was nothing he could do until she woke up so he sat down and sighed.

He looked at the scenery around him, while the planet had been devastated and the surface glassed the stars now reflected off of the ground, making it look as though they were stood on the night sky. It was an impressive sight.

He shut his eyes and lay back on the hard ground, letting sleep claim him.

His eyes flickered open and he winced slightly as the harsh sun beat down on him. As he looked around he saw the source of his wake up, Kat was down on one knee beside him and she hit him again. He sat, up and moved away, "I'm awake, I'm awake."

She sighed and replied, "We need to keep moving, we hacked into the platform's data banks and we found out that it has to stop two miles from here to refuel, if we don't get there soon we'll miss it and get left here, come on Six, time to move."

She offered him a hand and he took it, letting her pull him to his feet. He snatched his rifle from the ground where he had left it and together they ran off into the wastelands.

Finally, in the distance Steven could just make out a slight deviation in the skyline and as the ran on it slowly revealed itself to be the tip of one of the spire like constructs around the edge of the mining platform through which the resources of the planet were harvested.

As they approached the base of the refueling point they came under fire from Covenant defense turrets. They dashed towards the entrance to the point and dived inside, weapons up and aimed ahead of them.

Inside were a few grunts waddling along carrying some small plasma coils. They were quickly brought down under a hail of bullets. The two Spartans headed on inside the base and pushed on towards the centre.

They rounded the corner they discovered that the walls had turned a dull shade of grey, at the far end of the corridor was the beam of pure energy streaming out of the ground and up into mining pylon. The corridors had faded to a grey due to the excess energy coming off of the beam eroding away at the surface of the metal.

The shields on Steven's suit constantly glowed as the energy eroded them. "Get back." kat warned and they backed out of the grey section beyond the range of the beam. "We need to find some way of using that beam to get into the mining platform. I suggest we cut off some of these wall sections, we know they can withstand some of the energy so as long as we stand on one while we go up it should protect us."

"Alright, I'll see what I can do." he turned back to the wall and managed to get his hands around the edges of the metal plates. He leaned back using his full strength and weight to pull on the plate, there were a few groans and pings as the plate separated from the wall. He stumbled back slightly and shifted the plate into a more comfortable position and turned back to Kat, "This should be big enough for us both." She nodded and they headed back down the corridor.

Once they reached the energy beam Steven laid the plate on the ground and they both stepped onto it, kneeling down once onboard. Steven pushed his arms out behind them and propelled the plate into the path of the energy beam, instantly hurling them upwards into the belly of the mining pylon.

Below them Steven could see the edges of the plate begin to glow red hot from the power of the beam and the purple coating burnt off in heat. Above them there was a gap in the beam caused by their plate and Steven could see the top of the beam and his heart began to race as the energy began to burn through the metal plate.

Finally, the plate hit the entrance to the pylon and wedged there, blocking off the energy's path. The two Spartans seized the opportunity and leapt up, grabbing onto a ledge and up into the inner working of the mining platform. Steven looked back down and saw the energy finally heating the metal plate to white hot and finally burnt through, allowing the burning beam to shoot back up into the pylon.

Steven let out a breath he didn't realise he had been holding, if they had been just a few seconds slower they would have been vaporized. He tried the team comm, to no avail. "Comm won't work here, too much interference from the energy beam. I suggest we leave Carter to deal with his pylon and we tea ump to take down this one. We need to plant charges on the main anti-grav generator, that's what holds this thing up, the control room is just above this area, the energy shaft goes right through it."

She turned and look around for a ladder and, when none was visible she turned to him, "Fancy showing me your legendary strength?" He nodded once in reply and marched over to the nearest wall and made a point with his hand and locked the articulation. He brought his arm back and jabbed forwards with power only attainable by a Spartan in full MJOLNIR armour. His hand sliced through the wall like butter and he unlocked the articulation and grasped the new hand hold.

Using this technique he began to make his way up the wall creating footholds with powerful kicks as he went. Around half way up he looked back down and could see Kat just below him waiting for him to continue.

He got right back to work, slowly climbing his way up until he reached the ceiling. Fortunately, like everything else around the energy beam the ceiling too had been eroded.

He brought back his fist, slamming it into the metal, puncturing through with a shriek of twisted metal. He heaved himself up through the gap, prizing the metal open and forcing himself through. His shields sparked against the metal, showering sparks down onto Kat whose shields also flared.

As he entered the room above them he quickly unslung his rifle and fired on the nearest grunts. They fell backwards, holes punctured in their methane tanks. A pair of jackals spun around from their work stations and brought their shields up, blocking Steven's next spray of bullets. Behind him Kat emerged from the hole and brought up her pistol, firing on the jackals' feet.

They fell down, lowering their shields enough for Steven to blow them apart. They moved up, checking the corners of the room for any more Covenant. Once they were sure it was clear they made there way over to the console in the room and examined it.

Kat plugged her datapad into the console and ran her intrusion software. She sighed after a moment and shook her head. "No good, the Covenant have managed to sever access to the anti-gravity systems, we're going to need to blow this thing."

Steven nodded and withdrew his explosives kit from his pack. He attached it to the section of the room nearest to the energy beam. He clipped a remote detonator to the explosives and linked it to his datapad. He turned back to Kat, "The charges are set." He passed her the datapad and grabbed up his rifle again.

"Lets get out of here." she ordered, heading for the exit. Steven followed her out and they made their way down the corridor leading out of the central hub. Finally, after five minutes of jogging through the halls they reached a door which retracted into the wall as they approached. The wind whipped through as the door opened onto the exterior of the mining platform. As he looked outside he could see the four other pylons in the distance on the other side of the massive bulbous central hub.

There was a loud rumble in the distance and smoke began pouring from the next pylon over and the station listed to the side slightly. "Run!" Kat yelled, already running in the other direction from the damaged pylon along outside catwalk.

Steven followed along as fast as he could and within a few minutes they were halfway between the two. They stopped there and turned back to face their pylon. "Blowing the charges in three, two, one." there was a muffled thump and flames blossomed out of the pylon, smoke poured out and the station jerked to the side, listing even more heavily.

Kat stumbled and knocked into the railing, tripping, she stumbled over the side began to fall. Steven lunged forwards, grabbing onto her hand as she reached up to him. His fingers wrapped around her hand and he dragged her back up onto the walkway.

She let out a sigh of relief and looked up at him, "Thanks, that was a close one." Suddenly, from over the comm Emile's voice came in, "Brace for impact, blowing the final charge." Steven and Kat grabbed onto the railing as the station rocked a third time and began to tilt further over.

In the corner of his HUD Steven suddenly noticed that the squad's emergency beacon had been activated. In the sky above, a small waypoint appeared and a Pelican slowly descended from the sky towards them. It slowed as it approached and slowly worked it's way around the outside edge of the mining station. Once it stopped for the fourth time it headed for them.

Unfortunately for them the station began to scrape along the ground, it's anti-gravity systems now so weak that they couldn't keep the station afloat. The Pelican accelerated towards them and spun around, rear hatch open and Steven could see the other four Spartans inside. As soon as it was in range they leapt forwards, grabbing onto the lip of the Pelican's ramp.

With the help of the others they were dragged onboard. Together they looked down at the mining platform as it crumpled against the ground, explosions blossoming across the surface of central hub of the mining station. As the Pelican accelerated and banked up into the sky, the rear hatch swinging shut and sealing with a hiss.

The members of Noble looked amongst each other and almost instantaneously breathed out a collective sigh. "Mission complete guys." Carter breathed, his relief clear in his voice.

**Author's Note: Another chapter down and Noble team has completed their first mission. Remember, reviews means more chapters so please review, they always encourage me!**


	17. Chapter 17

**Memories: October 6th 2534**

**Location: Onboard UNSC _Call Of Winter_**

Steven stood in the washroom, shaving in the mirror. Thinking back it had been almost four years since he had arrived in the Halo universe, sometimes he wondered if his parents were still out there, back home, if they remembered him still. Although he hoped that his departure hadn't caused them too much anguish he was starting to feel more and more as though that was another life.

So much had happened since he had arrived. His induction into the Spartan programme, their first combat missions, getting to know the rest of his team. As many happy memories as he had there were also the sad ones, is near death in combat, Kai's suicide not long ago.

He had finally finished his shave and packed away his stuff, he left the room and headed back along the corridor the short distance to their appointed bunk room. As he entered he found the lights off, the only source of light an orange glow from the corner of the room. He slipped his wash bag into his footlocker and closed the lid, heading off to look for the source of the glow, although he was fairly sure he knew what the source was.

He quietly looked around the corner and saw Jun sat cross legged before a small arc of candles with a few faded photos sat before him. There was a slight murmuring coming from him as he sat there. Suddenly, Jun stopped and turned around, looking to see who was there and he visibly relaxed. As ever when Steven had disturbed Jun during his meditation his fellow Noble gathered up the photos and blew out the candles.

"I'm sorry." Steven muttered, turning away awkwardly.

"Wait!" Jun called after him, "I… I want to explain all this." he gestured to the candles around him. "Alright…" Steven said cautiously approaching Jun.

The two sat down on Jun's bunk, "Ever since I joined the Spartan program I've been trying to find a way to cope with the loss of my parents, my entire family and my friends. I started off by just trying to push it out of my mind, trying to forget everything that happened, but that didn't help, I just got more and more desperate for a release, for some sort of peace. Eventually I realised that I shouldn't try to forget the memory of my parents. My father was very religious, he always tried to teach me to be calm and tranquil. Well, I decided that the answer was to take him up on his ideas, in retrospect."

Steven nodded slowly, finally understanding why Jun did what he did. "Thank you Jun, for trusting me." Steven said smiling and clapping his friends on the shoulder, he stood up to leave, "If you ever want to trust me in return, I'm always here." Jun called after him.

Steven sighed, "I wish I could tell you Jun but I know I can't at least not yet." He couldn't bear to listen to whatever else Jun had to say.

Unwilling to face Jun again he decided to head to the gym, anything to take his mind off the situation. When he arrived at the gym he found it empty and he made for the high gravity end of the room. He piled all the weights onto the bench press and lay down. Looking down at himself he could barely recognise himself from the body he saw, the incident during his augmentations had given him a body that any weightlifter from his time would have envied.

However, all he could think of when he saw was the filthy looks the Marines in the halls gave him and the almost terrified looks of civilians on the occasions he had come across them.

Even as he was building up a sweat the intercom blared, "Will Noble team report to the bridge immediately."

Steven sighed and stood up from the machine and headed for the bridge. By the time he arrived the rest of the team had already arrived, he carefully avoided looking at Jun as they gathered in a line before the Captain.

"We've been summoned back to Reach after your recent success, Colonel Ackerson wants to brief you on your next mission. We arrive tomorrow. Any questions?" the Captain asked.

No one spoke and and the Captain nodded, "Dismissed."

Noble team saluted and they left the room, the whole team headed back to the bunk room except Steven who didn't feel like talking to anyone so he headed back to the gym.

Several hours later and lot of weight lift later he returned to the room. He checked the clock at the end of the gym, it read 22:15. He breathed a sigh of relief and headed back to the bunk room, everyone else should be asleep. To his horror, when he arrived and opened the door Maria was sat on his bed, waiting for him.

All around him the other members of Noble were fast asleep. She pointed to him and stood, beckoning for him to follow her. Once outside the room she turned and jabbed a finger into his chest, "Explain." she accused.

"Explain what?" he asked, her response was a single raised eyebrow, he sighed, "Look, as much as I want to explain it to you I can't, at least not yet, can you give me some time?"

Maria tilted her head down a little and put a hand on his shoulder, "We're your friends Steven, you must be need to be able to trust us. Things can't go on with you avoiding us, if we don't gel together we can't last on the battlefield."

She turned and returned to the bunk room. By the time he was back inside she was already in bed as if she had never been awake. Steven lay down in his bed and looked up at the roof. Sometimes he felt as if his life was falling apart around him. He didn't know how much longer he could keep lying to his friends

.…..…..…..…..….….

The ship shuddered as they dropped out of slipspace and into the Epsilon Eridani system. The space around Reach was full of ships, swirling around the planet in a veritable cloud of titanium.

The ship accelerated in system towards one of the orbiting MAC platforms. Once they got close to the station the ship slowed to a halt and rumbled as the airlock sealed. Hurrying along the corridors towards the hangar he wondered what Ackerson had planned for them next. Upon entry he found the other members of Noble gathered around the Pelican.

They all boarded and the Pelican and it lifted off from the hangar and soared out and into the space above Reach, turning to angle itself down through the upper atmosphere.

Upon their arrival at the UNSC Castle Base Colonel Ackerson was on the landing pad, a nervous looking lieutenant with him, to greet them. "Welcome Noble, you've been doing good work but it's time to escalate things, up until now you've been part of minor covert strikes against the Covenant but from now on you will be thrown in on larger scale offensives. We will discuss this at length later, right now the lieutenant will show you to your quarters, except you, 294."

Ackerson pointed and Steven and beckoned for him to follow, the two of them left the landing pad in the opposite direction to the others, following the twisting turning corridors of Castle Base deeper down into the mountain through dozens of security posts, retina scanners and blast doors, until finally they reached their destination, Ackerson's office.

The two entered and Ackerson pointed to a chair and Steven took a seat, the chair groaning beneath his weight. "We had a deal, you said you would tell me everything you knew and I do not believe that you do not know about this base."

Ackerson launched straight into his offensive, "I don't know what…" Steven began, but Ackerson didn't give him a chance, "Don't lie!" he roared, veins bulging on his forehead, "You of all people should know how badly the war is going, we both know there is something under this base and you _will_ tell me what it is or I will be very happy to get ONI involved."

Steven gulped loudly and began to structure what he would say in return, "Sir, underneath this base is an ancient alien complex, hundreds of thousands of years old, inside it is a large chamber at the centre of which is a crystal. If this crystal is onboard a ship while it is in slipspace it accelerates it's progress but at the same time spits out deadly quantities of radiation. In eighteen years the Covenant will attack Sigma Octanus IV and gain possession of an alien artifact located in the museum in Cote d'Azure, the artifact has the coordinates leading them to Reach. They invade Reach in 2552 and burn it to the ground."

Ackerson's face paled and he sunk back into his chair. "I'll send some men to retrieve the item from the museum, you on the other hand are going under this base to retrieve the crystal. Your armour will be brought down."

Ackerson looked to his computer and began typing furiously, Steven stood and left the room, his head spinning, he had just told Ackerson the way to save Reach, the way to prevent the loss of millions of lives, but would this change be enough, what about the devastating power of Halo that lurked among the stars.

He was still thinking on this as he walked through the halls when he suddenly realised he had no idea where he was going. He looked around for an information terminal and cursed when he couldn't see one.

However, when he saw the door nearest to him his blood ran cold, printed on the door in simple black letters was _Dr Catherine Halsey_. He nervously approached the door and knocked, "Come in!" a female voice called from inside.

He entered and sat behind a large wooden desk with paper and coffee cups strewn all over the floor was Dr Halsey. She looked up as he entered, fixing her steely gaze on him. "Who are you?" she demanded, a hint of fear in her voice at the sight of the massive Spartan.

"Hi, I was, umm looking for…" his voice trailed off as her piercing gaze swept over him and she stood. "Interesting, you looking like a Spartan but you are definitely not one of mine, if I had to hazard a guess I would say a product of some twisted attempt by Ackerson to mimic my program, and I know you can't confirm or reject that so don't bother telling me."

"Sorry ma'am, I was on my way from a meeting and realised that I didn't know where my quarters were." he explained. She looked unimpressed as she sighed and sat down, she opened a draw in her desk and retrieved a data pad, handing it to him. "There's a map of Castle' on this, give to any base staff when you've got back and tell them it's mine."

"Thank you ma'am." he saluted awkwardly, not sure how to deal with her due to her lack of a military rank. He left the office and rested his hand against the wall, hardly able to believe he had just met the creator of the Spartan IIs. He looked down at the data pad and saw that a text only message had been left on the screen, _I know who you are_.

**Author's Note: Sorry this update has taken so long, I had loads of tests and army cadet commitments but this is finally done. Remember, your reviews encourage me to write more so please read and review.**


	18. Chapter 18

**A Blast From The Past: October 7th 2534**

**Location: UNSC Castle Base, Reach**

Steven's head began to spin as he thought about the implications of what it said on the data pad, _I know who you are_.

His head began to spin and he forced himself to sit down. Several minutes passed as he tried to piece together his thoughts. He decided that confronting Halsey would be useless and he closed down the message on the data pad and, bringing up the map, managed to make his way back to their quarters.

When he arrived the other members of Noble were all gathered in the centre of the room around a table, playing cards. There was a cheer from Maria as she threw her cards into the air, clearly having won. Emile put an arm around her shoulder and kissed her cheek.

They all turned to look when they heard the door click shut behind him and he smiled sheepishly. "What did Ackerson want?" Carter asked, standing up, arms folded across his chest. "He just wanted to ask how the team was gelling together." he replied, somewhat feebly, Carter narrowed his eyes but then smiled at him, accepting his response for now, he saw Maria shoot him a look, she knew he was lying.

"Want to play?" Carter asked making space around the table for Steven. He nodded thankfully and Emile handed him his cards. They sat there, happily playing cards together for several hours until finally Steven noticed it was eleven at night. He sighed quietly and pushed his cards into the centre of the table. "I'm going to bed, god knows what they have planned for us tomorrow." he stood up and turned to the bed in the corner with his duffel on it. He got into bed and lay back, he mind buzzing with thoughts as the others followed his lead.

Finally, his eyes closed and he was asleep.

He was awoken by a rough shove and he groggily opened his eyes and looked up to see Carter stood over him. "You've got a visitor." Carter said, standing aside and letting a terrified looking man step forward. "Colonel Ackerson wants to see you immediately for the op." he said, turning and scurrying off, eager to get away from the Spartans.

Steven dragged himself out of bed and pulled on his fatigues, he turned around to see the other members of Noble stood before him, expectantly looking for an explanation. He lowered his head slightly, "I'll explain everything when I get back." he tried to push past them but Jun put a hand on his shoulder to stop him, "You seem nervous Steven, why can't you trust us enough to help you."

"I told you already, I'll tell you when I'm ready." he snapped back, pushing Jun's arm from his shoulder and knocked Maria aside as he went. He stormed down the corridors of Castle Base to Ackerson's office. He knocked once, not waiting for a summons to enter.

"What the hell _Sir_, how am I supposed to explain it to my friends that you keep calling me away without explanation?" he raged, prodding a massive finger into Ackerson's chest, knocking him back slightly.

"Sit down 294, we have work to do once you've finished having a tantrum." Ackerson barked, mentally winding Steven with the force behind the words. He silently sat down and waited for Ackerson to speak.

"I'm keen to get that crystal you mentioned right away so I'm sending you down there with a Marine squad to investigate immediately. The armoury is just next door to your quarters so you shouldn't have trouble finding it. Once you have suited up an aide will lead you to your entry point.

Steven nodded sourly and left, making his way back towards the bunk room, hoping against hope that he wouldn't run into the others. Mercifully he didn't and he found a pair of techs in the armoury ready to help him. Fifteen minutes later he stood in full MJOLNIR armour with a rifle clipped to his back, ready to go.

The aide had arrived halfway through the fitting and had stood silently by the door waiting while the techs worked. Now that they had finished he came over, "The Colonel sent me to escort you." he said, turning away without further ado and Steven followed, silently.

They made their ways through the corridors of Castle in a direction Steven had not yet been, twisting and turning through the identical corridors Steven wondered how the aide knew where he was going.

He was still following this train of thought when they went around a corner and reached a dead end with a grate across it. Before the gate stood five Marines in full battle attire, the grate rested on the floor to one side and three descent cables were attached to the entrance, dropping off into the darkness.

The five Marines and Steven all gathered around the aide. "All right, 294 you will be the ranking officer on the this mission, Sergeant Briggs, I know it is highly unusual for you to work alongside Spartans but it is absolutely necessary. 294, your armour has been fitted with a sonic mapping sensor, it sends out ultrasonic pulses and maps out the environment around you to create a three dimensional map. Your mission is simple, intel has been provided that there is a valuable object in the caverns below this base and the Colonel wants it. Good luck."

The six soldiers made there way over to the descent lines, Steven and two other Marines went down first, going down at a steady rate into the depths of the base. When they reached the bottom Steven motioned for the Marines to do a sweep of the area and keep it guarded until the other three Marines arrived. Although Steven was fairly sure that there would be no contacts in the tunnels he couldn't risk a mistake.

Once the last of the Marines were down they headed off down the passageway into the darkness.

.…..…..…..…..….….

Steven had lost all track of time, in the perpetual darkness and deafening silence of the tunnels it didn't feel like they had been traveling for two days.

The whole way he had been desperately trying to remember the details from the Halo: Fall of Reach. He cursed himself and wished he had the books with him. All he could remember was the eventually they should find glyphs on the walls and once they came into contact with human skin the system would activate, leading them to the entrance to the central cavern.

Although he knew the glyphs were out there, somewhere in the darkness, he was almost beginning to lose hope of ever finding them, thankfully they couldn't get lost thanks to his new mapping system which had done a good job so far.

He was so busy thinking it was a moment before he noticed a softer glow besides the glare of his armour's light. A faint orange glow ran along the wall and as he looked down he realised, there were obviously Forerunner marking on the wall.

He beckoned for the Marine sergeant to come over and join him, "I need you to touch the glyph sergeant, skin contact should activate them. Cautiously Briggs reached out and ran a finger along the edge of the glyph, he muttered a curse and with drew his hand, a small cut seeping blood.

Steven looked back at the glyph and saw he had been right. The glyph glowed a bright blue for a moment and the single blue light shot off into the distance, following the row of glyphs. Just before the light was out of sight another appeared, providing a constant guide for them.

"Follow me." Steven ordered, and the five Marines followed him down the passage after the light.

Much to Steven's relief it was less than an hour until they reached their destination. There was a gap in the glyphs leading into a slight indent. Inside this was a triangular glyph, the focus of the lights show. "Sergeant." Steven called, making way for the smaller man to touch the glyph. As soon as his skin made contact there was a deep rumble and the wall before them began to collapse, chunks of rock falling down into the corridor making way into the entrance of a corridor.

As Steven made his way though in the corridor he was amazed at what he saw. The corridor was twenty meters in height, leading inward at a straight line that gently sloped deeper into the ground. Golden light shined from the ceiling. The floor was paved with asymmetric blue tiles patterned in a way comparable to waves lapping on a shore. The utterly smooth walls were inlaid with centered four-meter tall gold glyphs made of similar shapes of triangles, squares, bars, and circles.

Further down the corridor, the ceiling stopped shining golden light and faded to total black. Pinpoint lights emerged imitating stars, which twinkled realistically. In addition, silver-gray orbs that represented moons pockmarked with craters spun in wide orbits across the ceiling. Along the walls, tall green bamboo-like stalks appeared.

Throughout the length of the corridor, the holography underwent three transformations to depict different scenes, each sharing the golden glyphs along the walls. After the initial scene, it changed to depict an arid moonscape with deep craters and sterile light. It then transformed into a volcanic world with active streams of lava flowing along the walls. The realism of this scene was enhanced with realistic distortion of the air, which wavered as it would in the presence of extreme heat.

They were all totally silent as they walked along, taking in the amazing sights before them, even with his prior knowledge Steven was not prepared for the sight. At the end of the corridor they came out onto a balcony overlooking a hugh chamber. The range finder on Steven's armour read three kilometers when he looked to the far side. In the very centre of the room on a glowing pedestal seemingly made of pure light sat the Forerunner crystal they were there to retrieve.

Steven walked to the edge of the balcony and saw it was on one of twelve tiered levels that have no railings and encircle the room. He clipped his spare descent line on the edge of the balcony and lowered himself down the roughly one hundred metres to the floor below.

As he looked down at the ground, waiting for the Marines to join him he saw the floor was made up of millions of tiny blue tiles that appeared to be shifting into patterns around his feet as he walked. Once the Marines were with him the began to walk towards the centre.

After a few minutes Steven's head began to spin and he called to them to stop for a moment, it was only then that he realised that they had ended up several metres apart. They gathered back together and Steven considered the situation. "I'll set a waypoint on the centre and walk towards it, you five shut your eyes and hold onto each other while the Sergeant holds onto me, that way we won't get separated.

The Marines muttered a few complaints as they formed up into a line resembling a game of follow the leader as Steven laid a waypoint at the centre of the room and focused on nothing but making the distance marker fall.

After ten minutes like this Steven looked up and suddenly realised they had reached the centre, "Halt!" he called out and they all came to a haphazard stop. "Sweet." chuckled Briggs as he reached up for the crystal. It was only once he got nearer that the Marine back off, suddenly realising he wasn't tall enough to reach. The other Marines chuckled at his efforts and he punched one of them in the shoulder for the trouble.

Steven stepped forwards, reaching up for the crystal. He wrapped his hand around it and yanked it down, feeling a slight resistance from whatever force field had held the crystal in place for untold millennia.

He looked down at the crystal in wonder for a moment until suddenly an alarm blared inside his helmet, radiation warning. He tried to drop the crystal but found that it was stuck to his hand. He tried to shake it free but it began to glow brighter and brighter, almost blinding him. He felt a burning sensation in his hand and then darkness.

All he could feel was a numbness in his body and then the world exploded into overwhelming colour and his fainted, falling once again into darkness.

**Author's Note: Two chapter in one day, come on, you owe me a review for this. I'm trying to make up for my recent update neglect. Remember, reviews means updates!**


	19. Chapter 19

**Long Time Gone: Date Unknown**

**Location: Unknown**

Steven groaned as he awoke, his head was throbbing and it was a few moments before he remembered what had happened. That damn crystal in the Forerunner complex under Reach had done something and although he could still feel the weight of the crystal in his hand the heat it had been generating before was gone.

He sat up, looking around at his surroundings and saw he was in the middle of a dense forest, it was almost pitch black. He flicked on his armour's torch, casting unnaturally bright light over the scene. Shadows lurched up from all around him, waving around as he spun, disorientated.

He forced himself to focus, dispelling concerns as to where he was for the time being. He began to wonder forwards, thankful that the mapping system was with him and making sure he wouldn't end up going in circles. He had been walking for almost an hour without and noticeable change of scenery, just more woodland and shadows.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he could hear a faint sound in the distance, an engine. He aimed himself towards the noise and ran, leaping over tree logs and smashing smaller branched in half as he went until finally he reached a road.

A few hundred metres down the road he could see a pair of headlights approaching and he stepped out a little onto the road to make himself more obvious. The car obviously saw him as it swerved to the other side of the road to avoid him and as it went Steven saw something he hadn't seen in almost four years, a renault. This revelation stunned him and he swayed slightly on the spot, his head spinning, he was back. Home again after so many years. In the distance he could head another engine and he pulled his helmet off, he wanted to make it clear to the next driver that he was a human. He realised that what the driver of the renault had seen had been some sort of massive hunk of armour and metal.

He stuck his thumb out and the car slowly pulled up beside him. The driver lowered the window and looked out at him, nice costume, where you headed?"

"Where are you going?" Steven asked, although he was home he still couldn't be sure exactly where he was. "I'm out here visiting an old friend, James Richards, we served together in the army. He doesn't live near anywhere in particular but I can give you a lift for a bit."

Steven did a double take, this man was out here to visit his father, obviously he had returned to very near his home and he was grateful for this, although he wasn't sure how to deal with his father after not seeing him for so long.

Steven got into the passenger seat, the springs in the seat groaning and the car listing heavily to one side under the immense weight of his armour. As they drove off the man looked to him, "How did you end up out here, I bet you had some wild party and friends left you in the woods as a joke, huh?"

"Yeah…" Steven replied, grasping at the offering of an excuse for his situation, "I'm Steven, by the way."

"Eric, I'm a therapist and James is one of my old clients but we still keep in contact. The poor guy lost his son a few years ago and he hans't been the same since, he just can't let go. Actually, his son's name was Steven too."

The remainder of the journey was passed in silence, neither of them knew each other and neither particularly wanted to talk. Finally the car pulled up outside a house, Steven's long missed home. "Well, I'm afraid this is as far as I can take you friend." Eric said as he shut the engine off. "Thanks." Steven said grabbing his helmet off the back seat and getting out of the car. "I think I might just say hi to this friend of yours, sounds like a nice enough guy."

Eric nodded suspiciously. Together they walked up to the front door and Eric rang the bell, on the other side Steven could hear footsteps and then the lock clicked open. The door swung open and on the other side stood James Richards, Steven's father. He was older than Steven remembered, despite the time he had been away his father bore more than four more years worth of wrinkles. His eyes looked tired as he looked over his visitors. It was then that he did a double take.

A raised a single hand and pointed and Steven, "But… you…" he gasped, and collapsed. Steven dived forwards catching his father before he fell. Eric spun around to look at Steven, "What was that about?" he asked, his voice panicked.

"I'll explain once we get him inside." Steven replied, hefting his father's weight to a more comfortable position. The two headed inside, Eric shutting the door behind them. Steven carried his father through into the lounge and gently placed him on the sofa. Looking around he saw the room had hardly changed. There were a few more photos of Steven on around than there had been previously but most noticeable was a cork board that had been added in one corner of the room with dozens of newspaper clippings and photos pinned to it. As he walked over he saw that they were all about the same thing, his disappearance. He ran his hand gently over an now long out of date photo of himself.

Eric walked up quietly beside him and observed with him. All of a sudden it seemed to click in the man's mind and he gasped, taking several steps back. "You! You're Steven, his son. He always said you were alive, I never believed him but he was right." The therapist continued gibbering as he sat back on the sofa and finally fell silent.

He walked back over to where his father was now lying and sat down beside him. He gently shook his shoulder and he woke up. His father looked disorientated for moment as he came to and looked at his son. He raised a hand and placed it gently on Steven's shoulder, as if he was afraid that if he touched him he would disappear. "It really is you!" he gasped.

"Yes dad, and you wouldn't believe where I've been." Steven replied, he then continued on to explain everything he had been through, his arrival in the Halo Universe, his induction and training in the Spartan program, the friends he had lost, the battles he had won and finally how he had come home.

Throughout the whole story is father sat silent, transfixed, pride burning silently in his eyes as he heard all his son had achieved. Once Steven had finished his father sat back in his chair and sighed, putting his face in his hands.

"We have to get you back." he said, finally. Steven couldn't believe his ears, did his father not want him home. "Let me explain", he clarified, "You've been gone for nearly four years, if you came back now you'd have some explaining to do. More importantly than anything else though, you have friends there now, people who are relying on you to come back and keep fighting for humanity. From what you've said your important, in the very least for your knowledge. Your needed, and as an ex-soldier I know how important it is to finish a fight, to stand by your comrades."

Steven was stunned, his father was right, he couldn't back out. Aside from the fact that he could never go back to living as he once had his friends needed him. Finally, Steven nodded.

He pulled the crystal out from the pouch on his armour and held it up to the light. It had been shaped like a shard, glowing brilliant purple on Reach but now it was more like a spiked ball with no light coming from it, just a dull purple colour that seemed to absorb the light.

"I'm no expert", said his father, "but it looks like you're out of juice." Steven nodded silently, an idea forming in his mind. "Come with me." he said, leaving the room and heading outside to the car. He lifted the bonnet and pulled out the battery.

He placed the crystal across the two terminals of the battery. There was a flash and a shower of sparks and the crystal glowed slightly, a dim light coming from deep within but it went out as fast as it had appeared. Steven cursed under his breath. "I need more power." he said, turning to his dad who was stood watching a few metres back.

"The only large source of power around here is the nuclear power station they built a year after you left. Security is tight but I reckon you could get in. I'll drive you if we can borrow Eric's car, you just ruined my battery." he turned and headed back into the house to look for the therapist who had been silent as Steven told his story and had stayed inside, thinking while Steven and his father were out trying out the battery.

"Eric, I need to borrow your car." James said as he entered. There was silence for a moment before he replied, "What for?"

"We need to get to the power plant so that Steven can go back where he came from, my car is broken now so we need yours." he explained. Eric nodded and threw his keys to James and he and Steven headed off. The engine revved and they headed off into the night.

Eric stood in the door watching until the car was out of sight. He headed back into the house and picked up the phone. He dialed 999 with shaking hands and asked for the police. After a moment the operator clicked though, "What is the nature of your emergency?" asked the smooth female voice.

He gulped once before replying, "I'd like to report a plan to break into a nuclear power station…"

**Author's Note: Steven's finally come home but things still aren't going well for him. Remember, more reviews means more chapters so please leave a review for me!**


	20. Chapter 20

**A Fond Farewell: Date Unknown**

**Location: Nuclear Power Station**

There was a long and unfortunately awkward silence between Steven and his father as they prepared to get into the power station in order to obtain the energy needed to reactivate the Forerunner crystal. "Dad, I just wanted to say thanks, all these years I wondered what it would be like to come home and… I needed to know if it was possible. You're right, I can't just stay here, for one I _died_ four years ago and more importantly my friends need me. I love you dad."

His father smiled sadly and pulled his son into an embrace. "Lets get you back where you belong… soldier." They nodded to each other and Steven had one last check over his weapons. He had hoped to get in peacefully but as they drove into the area there had been a police helicopter overhead and they had been forced to abandon the car and head in on foot. They now stood one hundred metres from the fence around the power station under the cover of the trees and the dark of night. "You may need this." Steven said, handing his M6 to his father who took it cautiously, quickly familiarizing himself with the lay out of the weapon.

He cocked the weapon and the receiver slid forward with a satisfying _clack_. "Lets do this." he said.

Using the camouflage unit in his armour Steven was able to make it to the fence with the wire cutters they had brought. Steven carefully cut a neat hole in the fence and folded it to the side making a neat man sized hole. He turned around and threw the small pebble he was holding a few metres behind him, the signal for his father to advance.

Once the man had emerged from the forest Steven deactivated his active camo, it would just make it harder for his dad to follow him and with the older man with him they wouldn't be invisible anyway. They quickly ran around the edges of the main plant building, carefully sticking to the shadows.

As they reached the nearest entrance they saw that a pair of armed guards awaited them, each of them armed with an MP5. "Wait here." Steven whispered, motioning for his father to wait. He rushed forward, silently running the dozen metres to the entrance. He brought the butt of his rifle down on the first guard's head. The man slumped to the ground, unconscious. The other man spun around bringing his MP5 to bear. His eyes widened as he saw the seven foot tall MJOLNIR clad Spartan stood over the collapsed body of his comrade.

He few round spat from the barrel of his SMG but they pinged uselessly off the heavy metal plates of the armour. Steven lunged forward again, swinging his leg around to connect solidly side of the man's abdomen. His eyes widened and he let out a muffled cry and he too collapsed. Steven turned back and motioned to his father to come over. Together they entered in through the door, weapons raised.

Once inside they found themselves inside a huge open space. The room was fairly sparse, along the ceiling ran an intricate system of cranes designed to move things around within the room. At the centre of the room was an array of circular metal plates dotted around. Below them they could hear the thrumming of raw power. "These must be the access plates for the control rods." his father summarized, pointing to the metal covers. "The reactor must be below us so the those pipes", he pointed to a series of massive pipes passing through the wall and out, "must be the way they take the water to the turbines once it has been heated. We won't find power here, we need to get to a map."

With Steven in tow he headed off towards another door leading deeper into the site, weapons at the ready. The corridors were narrow and twisting as they lead them around finally a single sign hung from the ceiling. On it was printed a pair of arrows both heading off to the left labelled, _Power Room _and _Coolant Chamber_.

Silently they headed off to the left, it wasn't long until they reached a heavy steel door. Steven shoved against it and it heaved open. As they entered they noticed the heat rise sharply. The room they found themselves in was a mass of pipes criss crossing in every conceivable direction. From the other end of the room Steven heard shouting and as he looked down the only walkway leading down the centre of the room he could see a small group of armed police. They group went to ground as they spotted him, one of them, clearly the leader, produced a megaphone. "This is the police, put down your weapons and come forward with your hands up!"

Steven sighed and shook his head, he and his father taking cover behind a particularly large pipe. "Take them out by any means necessary!" Steven heard the same voice cry from over the hiss of the pipes. He stuck his head around the corner of the pipe and fired off a short burst from his rifle.

His aim was perfect, the rounds impacted on the knees of the lone policeman making his way along the walkway towards them. He collapsed to the ground with a scream. A few rounds spat from his gun and impacted on one of the smaller pipes running along the ceiling, a jet of steam shot from the pipe and red warning lights began to flare around the room. "_Coolant breach detected_." a cool, calm female voice came in over the intercom, "_Sealing off breach_."

They steam abruptly cut off. The incident gave Steven an idea. He slowly stuck his rifle out around the corner and took steady aim and let of a single shot towards the police. The round hit dead on a large pipe beside them, unleashing a jet of steam at them. They screamed as the superheated coolant surged around them. "Run!" Steven yelled to his father and together they bolted forwards and across the walkway. On the other side they found their attackers rolling around on the floor clutching their burnt faces.

"Sorry!" Steven called back as they ran past and out of the coolant chamber. The next room they found themselves in was similar to the reactor chamber only it had small pylons running around the outside, the thrum of raw power filled the room. "This is it, we need to sever one cable and connect the crystal into the circuit his father ordered.

It suddenly struck Steven that his dad seemed to have taken command now and even more surprisingly, Steven was fine with it. "Stand back." Steven ordered as he strode over to the nearest large pylon drew is combat knife. He inspected the handle and was glad to see it was plastic. He gritted his teeth and leapt up, bringing the knife down in a sweeping motion across the cables. With an arcing flash and a shower of sparks the cable cut, swinging down to spark along the floor.

His father came closer and stood beside him, putting a hand on his shoulder. Steven turned to face his father, suddenly overcome with more emotion than he had felt in a long while. "Dad, thanks for everything and… I'll miss you." he smiled and embraced his father. A few moments later they separated. "I'll miss you too son and I want you to know, I'm proud of you." his father handed him his pistol and snapped off a crisp salute which Steven returned, a single tear rolling down his cheek.

Steven produced the crystal from his belt and leant down ramming the crystal halfway into one of the cables. He picked up the second cable and touched the two together. There was a shower of sparks and Steven's armour flashed an overpower warning. In his hands the crystal slowly began to glow, building up a charge. Steven pulled his helmet off with his spare hand and looked his father straight in the eye.

From the door they had come in through Steven heard a shout. As he looked over he saw one of the guards from the previous room. His face horribly disfigured, the skin on one side of his face melted away and slowly dripping like molten treacle. The guard leveled his MP5 and fired. For a moment nothing seemed to happen and then Steven's father looked down to see blood slowly spreading out across his chest from to bullet holes. He looked back up at Steven and smiled slightly, "Goodbye son." he groaned and lurched forward. Steven tried to lean down to pick up his father, to comfort him in his dying moments but the crystal in his hand began to glow brighter and brighter, the heat building up in his hand.

Moments later there was a blinding purple flash, "Nooo!" Steven screamed as he was torn away through the dimensions from his father. Just as quickly as it had started Steven found himself in that same massive chamber under Castle Base, alone.

He collapsed to his knees, weeping openly for his lost father, his lost life.

**Author's Note: Well there we go, Steven's _home_ again but his life has been changed forever. As always please review and remember I am open to suggestions to any scenes you may want to see in this. **


	21. Chapter 21

**The Return: Unknown**

**Location: Forerunner Complex, Reach**

Steven has been sat there sobbing for what felt like hours when he heard footsteps approaching behind him. He spun around, instinctively raising his rifle. Stood behind him looking insignificant in the massive room was Doctor Halsey. She had a concerned look on her face as she approached him. He turned his head back down to look at the ground, she gently rested a hand on his shoulder although he hardly felt it through his armour.

"Steven, welcome back. You have no idea how long you've been gone, things haven't gone well since you left." she explained. Steven shook her hand off and turned away, "I don't care any more, there's no point." he replied, his voice shaking.

"Pull yourself together Spartan, this is no time for you to flake out, remember your duty, remember your friends." she said to him, her voice stern.

"You have no idea do you, I just had to watch my father die, watch him be shot right in front of me. He's dead and there's nothing I could do for him, I don't even have a body I can bury." he replied, standing up to his full height and looming down over the diminutive doctor. She stood firm, barely flinching, "Steven, you may not know this but I have been following your exploits for a while and I have something to show you."

The two of them left the massive chamber and headed up into Castle base and into her office. The room was just as messy as when Steven had seen it when he had arrived at Castle. She motioned for him to sit down at the chair before her desk. She sat down in her chair and arched her fingers and rested her elbows on the desk. "Fourteen years ago I was doing some research on increasing slipspace speeds for UNSC ships. We were trying to manipulate the dimensions less forcefully, rather than tearing a hole in slipspace we literally wanted to slip into it. Anyway one day we were running some test on a modified Shaw-Fujikawa engine at our testing facility on Biko. During the tests we found that although the engine didn't manage to create a slipspace event it did create some strange dimensional anomalies. One of these manifested itself in several days later during the Covenant invasion of Biko. We discovered that one of the Marines on the surface had seen a strange mirror like opening in the air and a young teenage appear through it. Realising this was a direct result of my experiment I was determined to find out who had come through and where they were from. During the evacuating of the planet I was unable to find out what happened to the person but I was too late to catch them. It was a months until I was able to track them down and I had to call in a few favours in ONI but I discovered that the subject had been picked up by one of Colonel Ackerson's cronies and taken away, I didn't know what for until recently. A friend of mine on HighCom told me that Ackerson had been running a special warfare program and that my missing subject had been absorbed into the program. They wouldn't tell me what the program was but he could tell me the name of my subject, Steven 294."

Steven leaned back in the chair his mind spinning. Halsey had brought him into this universe by mistake, for a moment he was furious she dragged him from his home but then he relaxed, he was grateful that Halsey had brought him here because he had met the rest of Noble team. "Wait a minute, you said it was fourteen years ago, I've only been here for four."

Halsey shifted uncomfortably for a moment and then spoke again, "That's the other thing I needed to tell you, what may have been a little while away for you but you've been gone for nine years here."

Steven couldn't believe it, he had been gone for nine years, what had happened to the rest of Noble team? He voiced his question to Halsey and she looked uncomfortable again, "Noble team attempted to replace you, a new member was found but on their first mission Kat lost her arm and the new member was killed. After that Ackerson shut down Noble, condemning it as a failure. The members of Noble were reassigned to other teams and that was the last I heard." she explained.

Steven could hardly believe his ears, Noble team had been disbanded. "Doctor Halsey, I need to speak to Colonel Ackerson about this, where is his office?"

Doctor Halsey sighed quietly, "Colonel Ackerson was arrested five years ago for permitting illegal genetic modifications on members of the Spartan III program, after he had failed I was put in charge. You'll be pleased to hear that I have every intention of putting Noble team back together. It will take a while to call the members back from across what's left of human space, in the meantime you can have some time to recover from your recent incidents."

…

Steven breathed in a gulp of fresh air, looking out over the Reach highlands. It had been four days since he had returned from his own universe. He had spent the whole first evening locked in his room just sitting, staring at the bunk above him, the lights switched off. By the second day he had run out of tears for his lost father and he had taken a hike out into the highlands surrounding the base with just a single backpack with enough rations to last him a week.

After that he had just walked and walked, the hours merging together as he walked, his mind whirring with thoughts about what he life was really about until finally he had come to a large lake surrounded by woodland. He had settled down there for the night however, during his sleep he had had a dream, his father had spoken to him, reminded him of his duty to himself, the UNSC and most importantly his friends. It was this duty that drove him to return from the wilderness, prepared to fight the Covenant once more.

As he stood on the hill looking out over the UNSC base on Reach that Noble team had been sent to he was suddenly eager to be out there again, out among the stars fighting for the UNSC. He jumped forward sliding down the hill on the edge of his boot, jumping down ledges until he arrived at the base. As he strode back in through the gate he nodded to the guard. He walked into the command centre and was greeted by Doctor Halsey, "It's good to see you looking better, I wondered for a while if you would be up to fight again. I'm afraid your armour was lost over the years but I've been able to get Noble team onto the new equipment program so you'll all receive full MJOLNIR, not the useless crud Ackerson was giving you. I aim to replace all the Spartan III's armour within five years but you six will be the first."

The comm on her desk bleeped and she answered the call, "This is the UNSC Aegis Fate in orbit above Reach, we have arrived with you requested personnel, sending them down in a Pelican as we speak."

"Confirmed, we're all ready for them." Halsey signed off the comm and turned to face Steven, "You heard them, they're on their way down now, lets head out front and meet them." They headed out of the room and out to the landing pad. They stood there in comfortable silence as they waited for the Pelican to arrive. Slowly in the distance they could hear the whine of engines and slowly from high above them they could see a tiny black dot getting steadily larger as the Pelican approached.

As the tiny dropship neared the base it spun around and dropped to the ground. The rear hatch hissed down and out of the troop bay and out of it burst a grey blur that launched itself at Steven. The blur wrapped itself around him, he looked down and saw that Maria had wrapped herself around him. Beside him he could see Carter, Jun, Emile and Kat looking on at them, smiles on their faces. As Maria backed off she smiled sheepishly, "Good to see you again Steven" she grinned happily.

"Good to see all of you again, look I know I have a lot of explaining to do and I owe it to all of you. The next opportunity we have I'll explain everything." he explained. The other members of Noble all nodded understandingly. "It's good to see the team back together, now we must continue, I have new equipment to give all of you so if you'll all follow me."

The Doctor lead them all of into the building opposite the command centre. Inside were six mannequins all dressed in MJOLNIR armour, as Steven looked at it he realised that it was identical to the armour Master Chief wore in the first Halo game only he realised that it must not have shields since it was seven years before they would receive the more advanced armour.

Steven pretty much switched off as Halsey explained the abilities of the armour, in summary while it had no shields or active camo it would provide them with faster reflexes and significantly greater strength and defenses. A group of techs walked in and began fitting the Spartans with their new armour. The process took a little longer but once it was complete Steven slipped the helmet on and the HUD came to life and he instantly recognised it from the Halo games.

"Spartans, I want you to run through an obstacle course outside to test out your new armour." Halsey ordered. The group headed outside to find a huge obstacle course, to start with was a large field of gravel with no obvious obstacles, then a huge section full of ropes hanging in all directions with mines placed all around the ground under the ropes. The final section was a swampy, muddy area with razor wire running all around the area, at the edges were a number of mounted chain guns, stun rounds Steven hoped.

"Alright 294, your up first, get going." Halsey instructed smiling slightly as she motioned for him to begin. Steven walked confidently up to the start and ran out into the first section. Almost immediately his armour flashed up a crimson warning and he skidded to a halt. All around him his armour had flagged up circular markers all around him, suddenly he realised, he was surrounded by mines.

Very carefully he ran forwards, he leapt over the first group of mines and landed on the other side of them, his feet sliding for grip on the gravel. He grimaced as his foot slid onto a mine and knocked it slightly, it exploded sending a wave of heat over him. He could feel heat blisters form on his legs and then it was over, his hearing sounded muffled from the blast but he forced himself to stand and continue. He jumped the last few mines and made it out of the area.

He headed into the rope section and leapt three metres up into the air and swung onto the nearest rope. He gripped his hand around the next rope and leapt to the next rope, swinging his legs forward and wrapped them around the rope ahead of him and managed to swing forward again and leapt onto the next rope. He made his way across the area until eventually he reached the marsh. He looked cautiously around the area and saw the chain guns around the edge, already swinging to target him. Thinking quickly he spun around and leapt back into the rope area and hung down off a rope and grabbed reached down to a mine. He tried to remember everything he had learnt about explosives. He delicately slipped his hands under the mine and lifted it up.

He swung back out of the rope section and hurled the mine like a discus at the turret, the mine exploded, engulfing the gun in fire. Once the flames had died away all that remained of the turret was a burning stump. One of the five opponents removed Steven leapt forward into the mud, wading as fast as he could towards the nearest turret and leapt up onto the bracket and tore the gun free from the fire control system and hefted it, aiming it at the other turrets, peppering them with holes and they slumped down, their power lost.

Steven grinned happily behind his visor and waded out back into the swamp. Behind him he could hear a whirring sound and as he looked back he saw a small drone bearing down on him, stun rounds smacking into the ground around him and one hitting his arm. He winced and turned back, running through the swamp forcing his way through the razor wire. A single barb managed to get between the plates and into his body. He yelled and stumbled forwards catching himself before he fell to the ground as the drone whirred over him. He forced himself to stand and charged forwards with renewed energy. He leapt over the wire and charged up and out of the last of the swamp, across the finishing line.

Steven fell to the ground and sat there laughing to himself, he was back and ready to face the Covenant.

**Author's Note: I feel as though these last few chapters have been a little dry, I aim to try and pick things up asap. Your opinion on whether they have been any good would be helpful so please leave me a review.**


	22. Chapter 22

**Reunion Tour: June 19th 2545**

**Location: Planet Harmony**

Steven ducked back down behind the concrete slap and winced as he examined his side where the needler round had penetrated his armour and detonated, showering the wound with micro shrapnel. Kat sat beside him and she pushed his hand away from the wound as she injected him with biofoam. He clenched his teeth as the biofoam did it's job, wondering how such a simple mission had gone so wrong, so suddenly.

**8 Hours Previously**

**Onboard UNSC Jericho**

All six members of Noble had spent the two days in slipspace from Reach to catch up on each other's lives since the team was disbanded, Carter, Steven noticed had received the scar running across his eye that Steven recognised from the games that he had always thought looked cool. When he asked Carter about it his friend had given him a very vague reply to do with an elite wield an energy sword and some heavy combat.

Everyone seemed to have been just ticking by over the years, seemingly waiting for them t be called back to their true calling. Steven wondered how, after years apart, Emile and Maria had found it so easy to rekindle their relationship but from what Steven had heard the night before they had indeed managed it.

"Will Noble team please report to the bridge for debriefing." the Captain's voice came in over the intercom. The team stood collectively and left, walking, silent and stoic past the other crew members who scuttled out of the way of the Spartans. The bridge door slid open as the Spartans entered and they were greeted by sight of Captain Williams staring out of the front viewport at the colony world below. The Spartans stood in a single line, facing front and came to attention, snapping off salutes as the Captain turned. "At ease Spartans." he ordered, they barely moved an inch in response, they were on edge for their first mission.

"We've arrived at Harmony and we've discovered a pair of Covenant destroyers in orbit, we need them gone. ODSTs we deal with one, you take the other. You will be launched in SOEIV's directly at the enemy ships and once you reach leave this ship you won't be returning, I want you heading directly down to the surface so you'll need to find transport off of the Covenant ships get to the planet, then cover the civilian evac. Good luck, you drop in 20 minutes."

The Spartans snapped off a row of perfect salutes and left the bridge, heading for the drop bays. Upon arrival they found a group of ODSTs waiting around, their weapons and armour already on and ready. In one corner of the drop bay was the armoury, thinking ahead Steven grabbed himself an MA5B and a battle rifle. Looking around he saw the others had selected the same except Linda and Jun who had opted for snipers over the MA5Bs.

The ODSTs shot the Spartan horrible looks as the strode past and into the drop bay, as Steven walked past one of the ODSTs stuck his foot out in an attempt to trip him, it didn't end well for the Helljumper as Steven just kept walking and shoved his foot out of the way, sending him sliding to the floor eliciting a chorus of laughs from his squad mates.

Steven clipped his equipment into the drop pod and began to run the pre-drop check sequence. The small screen inside his pod flickered to life and Carter's helmeted head appeared on the screen, it took Steven a moment to recognise Carter in the MJOLNIR Mark IV helmet after so long in their custom armour.

A timer appeared in the top left corner of his screen, 10, Steven wrapped his hands around the hand holds inside the compartment, 5, he braced himself for the sudden acceleration, 3, 2, 1. The pod shook with a loud bang as it was explosively hurled from the ship and out into open space. As they shot away Steven could see the destroyer disappearing away from them and coming ever closer was the Covenant destroyer they were out to destroy.

In the distance Steven could see the six pods of the ODST squad heading for the other destroyer, he didn't have long to look, however, as all around him missiles streaked past and a MAC blast hurtled into the destroyer, the shields flickered, became an opaque blue coating and then resolved translucent again, Steven could see a second blast and Archer missiles hit the other destroyer and then he realised, all the assault needed to do was weaken the shields enough for the pods to break through.

The Destroyer began to move away, trying to get out of the path of the pods but the tracking system in the pod delivered a slight change of direction and a few moments later, with a screech of metal and a tremendous smash he punched through the shield, through the hull and his pod embedded itself in one of the starboard corridors. He shook his head as he hit the buttons to release the pod hatch and with an explosive crack it flew off, pasting a nearby jackal into the wall with a startled screech.

Chuckling darkly Steven grabbed his weapons and headed for Carter's waypoint. Upon arrival he found that the Carter was pinned down behind his pod, a group of three grunts and an elite giving him no opportunity to return fire.

Steven leveled his battle rifle and the first grunt and fired, the three round burst popping it's head like an overripe melon and detonating the methane tank on it's back. The grunt beside it screamed and jumped to avoid a similar fate only to discover it had a hole in it's side. Carter popped up and took out the final grunt as Steven dived down to take cover beside him as the elite continued to force the to ground. Steven stuck his head up above cover and was just in time to see the alien's head suddenly explode, spraying bits all over the area. As the elite fell forwards he saw the cause, Jun stood behind where the alien had been, his snipe rifle smoking. "If you want something done right…" Jun chuckled as he slung his rifle and switched to his BR.

Over the next few minutes Maria and Emile joined them and finally, Kat. When she arrived her previously green armour was practically painted orange from head to toe. She shrugged as she approached, "My pod hit a hunter and it's buddy wasn't too pleased." Carter shook his head slightly, "We need to move, now, the longer we stand here the more likely we are to encounter more resistance. Kat, what's the best way to take this thing out?"

There was silence for a moment as Kat mulled over the question before she spoke. "These destroyers are often used for glassing planets, so they must have a big plasma reservoir somewhere onboard, if we can make a small hole in it the ship will melt from the inside."

She sounded satisfied as she finished explaining, before Emile raised his hand, looking like a guilty child. "What happens when we're still onboard when it cracks?" he asked, his voice suspicious. "The reservoir will have some shielding to slow down the leak so we'll have some time to get out before it blows. I would guess the reservoir would be just above the glassing beam emitter, at the front of the ship."

Carter nodded and unslung his rifle, "Lets get to work Noble."

They headed off down the corridor in the direction if the front of the ship. For the first half hour their journey was unimpeded but as they rounded another corner, around the area of the narrow stem connecting the front and rear ends of the ship, they found themselves under fire. The backed off around the corner and Jun stuck his head around corner and swore loudly, turning back to the others, "Brutes." The one word made Steven's blood run cold, he had yet to experience the ape like aliens and he had hoped to put it off a little longer. He had no idea of the brutes would be like the unstoppable apes from Halo 2, the elite clones in Halo 3 or somewhere in between, like in Reach.

As he linked up to Jun's visual feed his suspicions were confirmed, they looked most like the brutes from Reach but that didn't mean they fought like them. Carter sighed, "Everyone, we'll each throw one of out grenades down there, hopefully take out a few of them, then Steven and Emile you move in to take down the rest while Jun and Maria cover you."

They all nodded and produced grenades, Carter raised three fingers and lowered them one at a time, once the last one dropped they all hurled their grenades at the wall around the corner, bouncing them into the group of brutes. There was a chorus of startled roars, drowned out by the ensuing explosion. Steven and Emile whirled around the corner, MA5Bs raised. The corridor ahead was a wreck, the roof had caved in from the blast and in the middle of the corridor stood a singled brute, sparks coursing over it's armour having just had it's shields downed, it staggered forwards and snarled as the shields popped back to life. Suddenly, it seemed to notice the Spartans and it charged forwards, swinging it's hammer. Steven and Emile pushed forwards, charging head on at the massive alien, rounds bouncing off the shields. Behind them a double crack of sniper fire slammed into the alien and it's shields collapsed once more. The alien roared in anger and swung it's hammer. Emile leapt and grabbed onto it, throwing the brute off balance. Steven pressed the advantage and stuck the muzzle of his rifle into the brute's gaping maw and fire. Bits of torn flesh and bone sprayed the area as the behemoth collapsed in a pool of it's own blood and gore.

Steven leant down, resting his hands on his knees to catch his breath. As it turned out the brutes looks like those from Reach but fought like the ones from Halo 2.

They continued on through the corridors until, eventually they reached a door. Kat knelt down beside the control pad and plugged in here data pad, "Lieutenant, come over here!" Kat called and Carter took a knee beside her, "I can get this door open but there's a problem." she said.

"And what is that?" Carter asked, his voice thick with suspicion, Kat pressed a few keys on the datapad and a security feed from the other side of the door appeared, along the length of the corridor were a number of alcoves and walkways ran perpendicular to it along the roof. Along the walkways and in the alcoves were hordes of Covenant. Grunts, jackals, elites and even a hunter pair towards the far end of the corridor.

Carter swore under his breath, "Is there any way around them?" he asked. Kat shook her head somberly. Carter straightened up and turned to the others, "Make sure you have a full mag and grenades ready to fly. Jun, Maria hang back a little while we head in so you can snipe them. Kat, open the door."

They all faced the door, muscles tensed and ready to run. The moment the door was open wide enough Jun and Maria let loose with their sniper rifles, aiming for elites where they could and jackals if they couldn't get a hit on an elite. The team charged forwards, hurtling through the door at breakneck speeds. Steven looks up and saw the walkways above him and the aliens trying to pour fire down on the Spartans.

He leapt up and swung around the walkway, leaping up onto the top of it and spinning his foot around, planting it squarely in an elite's chest. The shields gave way and his foot slammed through it's rib cage. He used his momentum to spin around, the elite still stuck to his foot, and send the corpse hurtling into the other elite on the walkway, knocking it down.

Steven jumped onto the wall, using his speed to to run along the almost horizontal wall and onto the next walkway, his rifle spitting bullets onto the five grunts on the walkway. Below him he could see the others running down the passageway. He hurled a grenade down into an alcove, right at the feet of a pair of elites, the blast in such a small space knocked out their shields and shredded them.

Now halfway along the hallway Steven leapt onto the second last walkway to find an energy sword wielding elite waiting for him. Thinking quickly Steven drew his knife and swung a lethal kick to the alien's face, sending it spinning to one side. It's sword hand now exposed Steven jabbed forwards with the knife, driving it in between the bones of it's arm and twisted. With a terrible cracking they splintered outwards and the alien collapsed in shock.

He reached the final walkway, taking apart the trio of jackals with a flurry of fists and feet. Almost directly below him was a hunter stood beside it's fallen bond mate, felled by Jun and Maria's sniping. Silently Steven dropped down behind the hunter and pulled a grenade, jabbing forwards with his hand, locking up the mechanism in his gauntlet, and into the writhing mass of worms in the alien behemoth's back. The alien screamed in pain and swung around just as Steven released the locked gauntlet and sent him spinning off through the air into the rest of Noble, sending Carter, Emile and Kat to the ground.

The hunter began to charge at him until the grenade lodged in it's back detonated, sending orange blood and bits of worm flying everywhere, however, the momentum of the hunter kept it's armour and bits of it going, crashing into the four of them and squashing them under the shield. Jun and Maria finished off the last few aliens fleeing with their battle rifles before coming over to help the others out from under the huge shield.

Steven examined the remains of the shield and saw that the loops used to attach it to the hunter had survived. He slipped his arm through the loop and hefted the shield. It weighed a ton and he wouldn't plan on bringing it down to the surface with him but in the close confines of the ship it could give him an edge.

He turned back to the other's who were staring in slight awe at the size of the shield he now carried. "Well someone's a badass!" Emile chuckled.

**Author's Note: Here we go, another combat chapter and at least one more after it. I hope you've enjoyed it! Remember, more reviews means more chapters and I'm always open to suggestions for scenes you'd like to see!**


	23. Chapter 23

**Landfall: June 19th 2545**

**Location: Covenant Destroyer, Orbit Above Harmony**

"This is it Lieutenant." Kat said, turning to Carter as she stood before the ornate door which led to the plasma reservoir chamber. Steven shifted his arm slightly to get a better grip on his new shield, the massive hunk of metal had already proven useful in combat as he had used it to block sniper fire from a jackal and then crush the unlucky alien into a wall.

"Alright, Steven, you go in first and get a gauge on the situation then Emile, Kat and I will follow you in. Jun and Maria, you known the drill, hang back and take 'em out." the group nodded in confirmation and Carter silently pointed to the console beside the door and Kat set the door to open. The door hissed open and Steven charged forwards, holding his shield up to protect his head and torso from the barrage of fire.

After a moment the fire faltered, it clearly went against everything they were used to to fire on a Covenant hunter's shield. Taking cover behind one of the massive columns holding the roof up Steven took a quick look around the room, sending the visual feed to the rest of the squad. The chamber was around four stories high and had a network of walkways running around the tapered cylinder in the centre, the plasma reservoir. Looking at the structure of the room Steven suddenly had an idea and he spoke into the comm, "Does anyone have any detonators?" he asked. Emile replied with an affirmative and Steven outlined his plan.

"Good luck." Carter said and a single hand stuck around the corner of the doorway, holding a small bag which flew through the air towards Steven as it was thrown. Steven deftly caught the bag and clipped it to his belt and look up. He extracted his ascent line from his utility belt and aimed the device at the ceiling and fired it. A thin titanium weave cable shot up towards the roof and wrapped itself around part of the highest walkway. Steven clipped the ascender back to his belt and pressed the small red button on the side. With a whir and a slight grinding he was lifted into the air, hurtling towards the roof. He backed off the power as he neared the walkway and glanced back down.

The Covenant below seemed to be recovering from the shock of the massive Spartan soaring up past them. A hail of plasma surged up to get him as he pulled himself up onto the walkway using it to protect himself from the firestorm below. He looked along the length of the walkway and saw he had been right, it was connected to the roof by a large number of thin struts and the occasional thicker connector.

He lifted his shield and swung it at the nearest strut, slicing through it with a slight _clink_. He grinned to himself and began to run along the walkway using the extra length of his shield to reach both sides of the walkway, his fist on one side and shield on the other, severing the struts. Finally, he reached on the of the larger connectors and he produced an explosive from the bag Emile had given him and clipped it to the connector and slaved the detonator to his suit. He continued along around the walkway, bowling over and Covenant in his way until he had snapped all the struts and planted explosives on all the connectors. This complete he clipped back onto his line and descended to the floor below.

He ran back around the corner through the door to join the others. "Ready?" he asked, chuckling darkly as he did. "Hurry!" Kat snapped, seemingly in a rush to get going. He activated the detonators and with a series of explosions the connectors were severed. With a creak of metal there was a massive crash and the whole walkway structure came tumbling down.

Steven had been right, the only thing holding the walkways up had been the top one's connection to the roof and with this severed the whole four layers of walkway had been brought down, dozens of Covenant crushed beneath tons of metal.

Once the noise had subsided Noble team collectively moved into the room to see the devastation, twisted metal now filled up most of the ground level in the room, leaving the headspace above going up to the ceiling void of anything. Kat cursed, "I hope for your sake Steven that the computer console for this thing has survived." She began clambering over the wreckage all over the narrow circular space around the reservoir. The team followed her and eventually reached the console. The corner was dented and the screen was cracked but it had survived otherwise intact. Kat plugged her datapad in and began hacking the systems. After several minutes she unplugged and turned to the others. "I've set the reservoir to think the glassing beam is being used but magnetic systems won't be online to guide the plasma so it should smear out all over the hull inside the shields until the reservoir melts and it leaks into the interior of the ship." She explained, "We have ten minutes." she added.

Carter nodded and looked up, examining the map of the ship. "We need to get up there." he said, pointing to the third floor of the chamber. Each member of Noble produced an ascent line and launched it up to the door way, using the magnetic setting to clamp on. One by one they soared up to the ledge, waiting on the other side of the door so they could go through together.

Kat opened the door and they headed through. Carter pushed to the front and lead the way, they twisted through several corridors until a final door opened up into a hangar, crowded with Covenant. Carter motioned for them to be silent and then pointed to a lone dropship near to them. Silently, they ran for it. Not silently enough, however, as a massive elite roared at them and pointed. It charged for them, energy swords activated, all the other Covenant in the hanger opened fire.

As the elite neared Steven separated from the group slightly and swung his shield viciously, smashing it into the side of the alien's head, knocking two of it's mandibles so that they pointed inside it's mouth and sending it spinning away. By the time Steven had caught up with the rest of the team they were onboard the Phantom and shouting for him to hurry. He leapt onboard and Jun activated the closing mechanism for the side hatches.

Steven breathed a sigh of relief and then collapsed against the wall, sliding the ground in relief. Another moment passed before any of them noticed the problem, the dropship wasn't moving. Emile headed forwards to find out what was taking Kat so long. A shout came from the front as he entered and Steven followed him.

Inside the tight confines of the cockpit stood a massive red armoured elite ultra, an energy sword in it's hand, massive hand around Kat's neck. Emile jumped at them but the alien managed to swing a mighty kick at him, connecting solidly with his midsection, winding him. Steven went in next, clamping an armoured wrist around the elite's sword arm. He locked the articulation in his gauntlet, try as it might the elite couldn't shake him and after a moment it released Kat to try and deal with him.

Steven twisted his body to avoid being impaled as the elite lunged with it's sword. For a moment Steven couldn't believe his eyes as another armoured hand clamped around the alien's sword hand and visibly squeezed, crushing the bones. The elite dropped the sword and snarled. Steven brought his fist back and swung it, connecting solidly with the elite's head, it collapsed to the ground, a large dent in it's head.

Kat stood up from where she had fallen to the floor, massaging her neck. "Thanks!" she gasped and sat down at the controls. The dropship thrummed and shot forwards out into space. Kat brought up the rear display camera and looked back at the destroyer. Barely a minute after they had left a faint white glow came from the area around the plasma projector and then white heat burst out all under the shield, making it glow opaque before it finally burst, spewing white hot plasma into space. Moments later the whole front bulbous section of the destroyer began to glow from within before plasma began seeping out of holes in the hull. It looked as though the destroyer had developed white hot acne.

Finally, the bottom of the bulbous section exploded, blasting outwards and sending the ship careening into the path of the already lifeless second destroyer. The ODSTs had done their job and as the two cruisers hit they locked together, lights flickering on and off along their lengths before finally going dark.

The view screen flicked back to a forward view as the Phantom began to descend through the atmosphere with a payload of Spartans ready to kick the Covenant off Harmony.

**Author's Note: Another chapter done, a little shorter because I went for a faster update rather than length! Next chapter will be a third chapter of combat to make up for the previous lull in action! Please review and if you're bored waiting for me to update read some of my other work!**


	24. Chapter 24

**Landfall: June 19th 2545**

**Location: Dropship In Atmosphere Above Harmony**

The dropship shook as it was struck by AA fire, as soon as they had descended through the atmosphere they had been able to make out the massive anti-air cannons mounted around the edges of the main city, Troy. "Lieutenant, I'm gonna have to take us down outside the city, we'll be ripped to shreds if we stay up here much longer!" Kat called back to Carter. She matched actions with words and the dropship began to slant downwards, as she aimed it towards a small settlement three kilometres east of the city and brought them in to land.

As they approached the settlement Steven suddenly noticed that they were failing to slow down, "Kat?" he asked, his voice laced with concern.

"The AA fire must have hit something critical, brace for impact, we're going down." she warned. She managed to wrestle the tiny ship onto a new course for the farmland north of the town. Steven gripped the bulkhead, denting the metal with the force of his grip. To her credit Kat continued fighting with the controls until the impact, metal scraped and the dropship bounced along the rough ground. The sudden deceleration almost threw Steven free from his position against the bulkhead but he managed to hold on.

Sparks fell from the ceiling as electrical cables came loose and the lighting went out as it ground to a halt. Kat groaned as she sat up in her chair, the display screen was dark as they looked forwards. Steven headed back and found the other members of Noble dragging themselves free of their mess of limbs up against the front end of the troop bay where they had been thrown in the crash. "Status report?" Carter asked.

"Sore but alright." Kat grumbled as she waited for the others to get up. Emile stood up and turned to her, "I thought you knew how to fly these things?" he asked.

"I do Emile, but it's a little hard to do when speed controls don't work and I can't steer." she shot back. "Cut it out!" Carter barked, snapping everyone from the moment, "We need to head for the city, get out of here before the Covenant can get a bead on our location, lets move out, Maria you're on point."

The headed out of the city, forming up into a staggered line as the patrolled along the long road. As they walked Steven was certain her heard something moving in the trees beside the road but on closer inspection he couldn't see any contact and he put it down to wildlife moving in the undergrowth. They had been walking for an half an hour when the city finally came into view, it looked a mess. The massive sky scrapers which mad made up the skyline were in ruins, whole chunks blown out of the sides and flames licked out of burnt sections of the buildings.

As the came closer Steven could hear people screaming, the sound of gunfire, the sounds of the Covenant invaders. He quickly glanced off into the forest beside them and his heart skipped a beat, in amongst the trees he caught a quick glimpse of angular green armour and a polished gold faceplate, or at least, he though he had because almost as soon as he thought he saw it, it had vanished again. He was almost certain his mind had been playing tricks on him so again, he let it pass.

The suburbs at the edge of the city were a surreal sight, although the planet had been heavily attacked by the Covenant this area looked almost untouched, there was even a fountain in one of the gardens. The sight reminded him of home, a home that had been stripped from him but his origins nonetheless.

They spread out a little more as they entered the wider streets towards the centre of the city, carefully avoiding standing under the damaged buildings. Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye Steven saw movement. He began to call out but Jun beat him to it, "Take cover!" he yelled, the team scattered.

Barely a moment passed before all six Spartans were out of sight of the street, taking cover behind whatever they could find. Then, there was a wet fleshy thud with a metallic undertone to it. Cautiously Steven stuck his head up over the concrete plant container he had been using for cover, his could hardly believe his eyes. Lying in the middle of the road was a mangled corpse of a Covenant hunter, of few of the worms which made up the creature still flopping around in the pools of orange gore. "Clear." he said over the comm, not quite sure how to describe what he had seen. It hardly needed doing as everyone else emerged from cover and inspected the new arrival.

Emile walked over and stamped down on one of the worms, clearly relishing the sight, "Dumb bastard must have tripped up there." he said, looking up at the building above them the Covenant warrior had fallen from. Steven couldn't help but be suspicious, Hunters may be big but he had never seen one acting clumsy.

"We need to keep moving, if we see any sign of civilians then we help them out, no matter what." Carter ordered, walking around the mangled corpse. It wasn't long until they heard the sound of plasma fire and as the rounded a corner they found a group of two elite, three jackals and four grunts pouring fire down on a small section of the street, clearly harboring some humans. Steven charged forwards, grabbing a grenade as he went and lobbed it into the alien's midst. The blast cut one jackal and three grunts into bloody shreds and knocked out the shields on one of the elites.

Steven brought his rifle to bear and blew the head off the unshielded elite. That left and elite, a jackal and a grunt to deal with. He saw a single round shoot into the mix and through the small gap in the jackal's shield, blowing it's arm off and knocking it to the ground. Carter leapt into the fray and brought down the butt of his rifle towards the remaining elite's head. Unfortunately for him, the alien swung around and dealt a wicked kick to Carter's chest, sending him soaring into the air to land in a heap a few metres away.

Steven began to fire on the alien, drawing it's attention but then, out of nowhere, Kat leapt up onto the alien's back and slotted her pistol in between two of it's jaw, blowing the pair opposite off, along with half it's head. She climbed off the alien's corpse and but another round into it's head for good measure. From where the aliens had been firing a group of five civvies appeared escorted by a pair of Marines. Their faces conveyed looks of terror as they saw the six Spartans standing tall in their MJONIR next to the murdered Covenant.

The Marines nodded respectfully, "Thanks for the assist Spartans, can you escort us to the LZ, it's one block over!" the Marine Corporal asked, walking over to the Spartans. "Sure thing trooper, follow us." Carter replied.

The Spartans formed a loose perimeter around the group as they headed for the LZ. As the rounded the block they saw the Pelican waiting for them and for a moment Steven wished he could leave with it, the devastation was starting to get to him. The Pelican began to rise off the ground and turned, angling up to head up back into space when a single green burst surged up and struck the dropship.

The fuel rod blast scored a direct hit the on the Pelican's port side rear thrusters, sending the dropships spinning out of control before it slammed into the corner of a skyscraper and slipped down, dragging out the floors with it, leaving a dangerously unsupported section of the massive building. Collectively Noble team leapt in all directions as they heard the fuel rod cannon chagrin up for another shot. As soon as he hit the ground Steven scrambled to his feet and charged off, entering for a flanking maneuver. He ran around the corner almost directly behind the hunter when he heard the sound of the thrusters from above. He looked up and saw a dark silhouette descending from above, the clear outline of a rocket launcher silhouetted against the sky.

With a whoosh the rocket fired and the impacted on top of the hunter, shattering the armour from it's back and almost entirely blowing the top half it open. Just in front of the downed hunter a huge figure landed and went to one knee, slowly rising up as the flames licked around it's feet.

As the armoured figure turned to look at Steven, for the second time that day his heart skipped a beat, printed on the green armour was the number designation, 117.

**Author's Note: While he won't be becoming a major character in the story I though the Chief deserved a mention so here he is! I hope you liked his entrance, please leave a review for me, they all help encourage me to update more often!**


	25. Chapter 25

**117: June 19th 2545**

**Location: Surface of Harmony**

For a moment Steven stood there floundering slightly as the Spartan 117 stood before him, his rifle leveled at his visor. "Identify yourselves." he ordered, his voice stern and commanding. Carter strode over, "I'm Lieutenant Carter 259, identify _your _self." he ordered, indicating the difference between their ranks.

The larger Spartan huffed slightly, "Master Chief Spartan 117, Sir. We've been trailing your team since you made landfall, who are you?" he asked. Carter stood awkwardly for a moment, embarrassed that he hadn't known they were followed. "We're codename Noble team, we've been sent down to assist in the evacuation. Are you alone?" The Chief straightened up a little, "I'm a member of Spartan blue team, my team mates are located in the buildings and streets around us keeping a perimeter, I'll call them in." his head moved slightly as he spoke within his helmet, his speakers turned off. Suddenly, Steven noticed movement around him as three other Spartans emerged.

As they approached Steven could see their numbers, 104, 087 and 058. They three were clearly cautious as they approached. The Chief turned to face them and spoke again, "This is Spartan team Noble, they've been deployed to assist with the evac." he turned back to Carter, "We've been deployed to try to slow down the Covenant to give the civvies more time, we'll flank around beside you to keep them off your back as you scan the city for more survivors, if all goes to plan you won't know we're here until we evac." he explained.

"Good idea, anything to keep them away from the civvies." Carter replied. Just as Blue team turned and headed off into the shadows Steven called out, "By the way, was the hunter you?" The Chief turned around and to look at him and nodded once, then vanished from view.

"Alright Spartans, lets move out." Carter ordered, heading off the way they had been going. As they swept through the streets they saw almost no activity save for the occasional bout of gunfire in the distance. As they rounded another corner they saw a large group of civilians boarding a Pelican. Suddenly, from the building above them there was a glint of sunlight on armour and there, standing with a rifle in hand was a long elite. "Jun!' Carter called, but the team sniper was already in position, his rifle cracked and jerked back as a single round tore through the still air and went straight through the neck of the lone alien. It stumbled forwards off the roof and plummeted down to the ground with a wet thud.

Then, almost as though a switch had been flicked Covenant troops poured out of the alleyways to either side of them. "Split!" Carter yelled and the Spartans split into two groups, Carter, Steven and Kat took the left and Emile, Maria and Jun headed right. Steven leapt into the fray, AR barking as round spat from the end into the chest of the nearest jackal. Steven tucked and rolled, slamming into the elite stood behind it and brought his fist up into the alien's jaw. He wrapped his hand around the alien's mandibles sand yanked, tearing two of them free. The alien collapsed to the ground in shock even as Steven continued on slamming a foot into the elite's chest.

Beside him he heard a roar and a fist hit him on the back, knocking him to the ground, winded. He spun around and an elite practically fell onto him, clamping him to the ground by the neck and brought up it's plasma pistol. Steven winced as the pistol began to grow green with power. Just in time, an armoured foot swung across his vision and knocked the elite clean off him, sending it soaring off through the air.

Steven looked up and saw another Spartan standing above him, printed on the armour was 087, it was Kelly. She offered him a hand and pulled him to his feet. All around him lay the corpses of the Covenant they had killed.

"Thanks." Steven muttered, wiping some of the blood off his armour. In the area stood nine other Spartans, Blue team had rejoined them in their time of need. They made their way over the Pelican to speak to the pilot who was motioning for them to come over. "Spartans, before I can get these civvies out of here I need you to take out the Covenant AA gun two blocks over."

Carter nodded, "We'll take it out, we'll need to take it out before out evac can come in as well." They headed off in the direction of the AA gun, the tip pointed over the tops of the suburbs surrounding it. As they came out into the plaza the gun was deployed in Steven suddenly recognised the design, it was identical to the ones used in the Voi area during Halo 3. The gun moved slightly to realign, aiming up into the sky. It fired off a three round salvo, impacting directly on a Longsword as it flew down a little too low into the atmosphere, pursued by a trio of Seraphs.

It span off overhead, trailing fire as it tumbled through the air. A hatch opened below the gun, revealing the power core as it vented heat out from the firing. "We can hit the power core if we attack from below after it has fired." Steven explained. Carter nodded, "You heard him, lets do this."

They charged forwards, firing up at the Jackals stationed along the balcony around the gun. Maria and Jun held back, firing off at the Jackals. Within moments most of them had fallen, dead. Once they were under the gun, out of the line of sight of the few remaining Jackals. They looks up at the underside of the gun as the power core vented again. "Any ideas?" Carter asked.

Kat piped up, "Once the hatch goes down it's only about five metres up, we could probably throw Maria up there, after all she is the smallest of us." Steven noticed Maria shoot Kat a quick glare, he could tell from her body language she didn't appreciate Kat's comment. Carter shrugged, "What have we got to lose. Steven, Emile, you're with me for the throw."

The three Spartans arranged themselves in a triangle with their arms facing inwards. The each rested their arms down and overlapped their hands for Maria to step up onto. They timed it carefully until just after the gun fired and the launched her. Steven shot up like a coiled spring, lifting with Carter and Emile to hurl Maria up. She flew up into the air, just as the hatch swung down. The reached out with her hand and managed to pull herself up and onto the inside of the hatch. Moments later it swung shut.

Maria flicked on her helmet torch and looked around at the inside of the gun. It was a mess of wires and pipes, some of which she could feel were hot even through her armour. She looked up and the power core above her and gulped. She could here the gun whirring up ready to fire, if she didn't stop it in time she would likely be fried alive by the intense heat generated.

She swung her fist as hard as she could into the core but it just bounced off the hardened surface. She muttered a curse and shook her fist to get rid of the pain, thinking quickly. She looked up above the core and saw that running up out of the core were a number of cables, each as thick as her leg.

Using all her speed and skill she managed to use the surrounding pipes and cables to swing her way up to the top of the core. She inspected the power couplings and made a quick judgment she hoped would pay off. She snatched a grenade from her belt and lodged it in amongst the cables.

She dropped off quickly and fired her rifle into the mechanism which controlled the hatch. It swung ponderously down she slid down it, using it like a slide. Just as she cleared the gap she heard the gun begin to fire and over it she could hear the _whumph_ of her grenade.

She landed and tucked into a roll, turning around to look up at the gun. Sparks coursed along it's armoured plating and out of the now useless hatch wires and cable hung, sparking and dripping coolant and plasma. Suddenly, with a quick, audible build up of power the gun exploded, showering the area with bit from inside it.

Carter walked over and patted her on the shoulder, "Nice work up there." he said. Emile joined him, "Remind me not to annoy you sweetheart." he chuckled, putting an arm around her shoulder and pulling her gently into him with a clunk as their armour made contact.

"We need to move." Carter ordered, still conscious of the jackals in the area. Together, the six Spartans sprinted back down the hill to the evac site. High above them and rapidly approaching Steven could make out the tiny dot of a Pelican on approach. However, in the evac area was the civilian evac Pelican trying to lift off as Blue team tried to hold off the Covenant desperately trying to bring it down.

Noble team launched into action, splitting off into two groups, one going in head on to distract the Covenant while the other flanked them. Steven slinked through the shadows, silent despite his bulk until he was alongside the group of jackals and elites pouring fire onto the evac zone.

He hurled a grenade into the mix and for a moment the fire eased off. He prepared to charge in but the Master Chief's familiar voice came in over the comm, "Hold your position 294." It took Steven a moment to register he was bring addressed, he wasn't used to people using his number designation, it made him feel a little less human and he wasn't sure he liked it.

The Chief's warning was instantly explained as a rocket hurtled into the stunned Covenant, blasting them to pieces. Steven then moved in, taking care of the last few Covenant trying to crawl away. By this time the civilians had managed to get away and their own evac Pelican could be heard no far off.

Steven was careful to remember what Mendez had taught them, the last part of a mission, the evac, was where most lives were lost when people relaxed too soon. He made his way over the area where the nine other Spartans of Noble and Blue team were congregated. Suddenly, out of the shadows darted a massive figure.

Steven instantly recognised it, an elite. It launched itself at the Chief but Steven was ready, he lunged forward t intercept and punched the elite clean across the jaw. As he neared the alien he suddenly recognised it, the elite he had early disfigured had hunted him down. Behind him he heard the Pelican's engines as it lowered down and the back hatch whir as it allowed the Spartan to enter.

"Come on Steven!" a voice called from behind him. Desperately, he kicked up, connecting solidly with the alien's stomach and forcing it to take a step back. Taking advantage of this Steven turned and charged up into the dropship. It began to lift away as soon as he was onboard, rising up and away as the rear hatch swung shut.

Steven breather a sigh of relief and sat down in the nearest seat, they had made it.

…...…...…...…...…..

Moro 'Valamee growled to himself as he watched the tiny human dropship rise up and shoot off into the sky. He roared after them, "You shall die for your cowardice _demon_!" he spat the last bit as the insult it was. He meant every word, he would track down this _Steven_ wherever he went next and kill him for fleeing the fight after damaging Moro's mandibles. He turned and called for a pickup over his personal comm, when it came, revenge would indeed be sweet.

**Author's Note: Well there we go, Noble team and Blue team both made it out ok but now Steven has a stalker! Rest assured this elite will return! Sorry it took so long to get this done, you guys need to keep reviewing to keep me inspired, so please read and review this and my other work. Thanks!**


	26. Chapter 26

**Truth: June 20th 2545**

**Location: Onboard UNSC _Jericho_**

Steven and the rest of Noble team gathered in the centre of their bunk room. They had arrived back onboard two hours previously and since then they had said their farewells to Blue team, got out their armour and cleaned up and now it was finally the moment Steven had been dreading. He had promised upon his return from his own time to tell his story, all of it.

They sat down in a circle, each member pulling up a chair and watching him with rapt attention, his heart pounded in his chest and he gulped before speaking. "What I'm going to tell you will sound insane, but I promise it's the truth." He began by telling them about how Halo was a game and then how he had stumbled into the Halo Universe, how he had been brought together with Carter after Biko had fallen and the two of them had been brought into the Spartan program. He then skipped on almost four years to when he went home, how his dad had taught him to follow his duty and how, together, they had ventured into the power plant to energize the crystal from Reach. He finished up his story by telling them how, just as he returned to their world, he had watched his dad die before his eyes, watched him and fall and had been powerless to help.

Even as he finished he found himself sobbing, he could hardly believe his father was dead, he had never felt so powerless and he was determined never to feel that way again. Maria stood up and came over to him, embracing him in a hug. The others sat in silence, unsure how to respond. Finally Emile spoke up, "I don't care", he said, "You may know all that stuff about us but you've changed things, you told Ackerson and not he's gone and Halsey's in charge, things will be different this time. You've made a difference."

Steven sniffed, bringing himself under control once again. "Thanks guys, I know that I need to go and speak to Halsey, tell her everything that I know so I'll go and send her a message."

He stood and left the room heading for the ship's comms room to send a message tot he Doctor to request a meeting.

Once he had left the room Maria turned back to face the others, "I knew he was hiding something but I've gotta admit, I never saw that coming." Carter nodded slowly, "I agree but Emile is right, with all his intel the course of the war could change.

…...…...…...…...…...…...…

The ship's intercom buzzed and the Captain's voice came in, "Noble team to the bridge." he ordered. Steven winced slightly, he didn't sound as though he was in a good mood. By the time he arrived the rest of the team was already present, as he entered they glanced at him but were otherwise unmoved, stoic and silent before Captain Erikson.

"Ah, nice of you to join is 294." he said, his voice laced with venom as he spoke, "I've recently received a message from ONI that I have to take you _freaks_ to Reach, as you can imagine I'm not too pleased because I don't want to be kept out of the fight and to leave refugees on my ship for the length of time this will take, so you _will _tell me what is going on and why you disabled the monitoring in your cabin yesterday."

There was silence for a moment and the Captain took a step back, glaring at each Spartan in turn, they all just their, silently staring forwards. "Noble leader." Erikson said, moving in front of Carter, "I _order_ you to explain yourselves. I don't appreciate secrets on my ship." Carter hardly moved, "No, Sir." he replied, his voice rock solid.

Erikson's face curled up, "_No_?", he spat his voice furious, "I gave you an order _Lieutenant_, and you freaks are expected to obey me. Tell me why you disabled the sensors." There was a long awkward silence, Erikson turned on Steven, "It's you isn't it, I can tell, the way they looked at you when they came in. What were you talking about?" he stood inches from Steven, although he had to look up to see Steven's face.

Steven forced himself to remain silent. Erikson turned to the two ODSTs who stood guarding the bridge, "Arrest this man!" he cried, pointing at Steven furiously. Steven finally snapped, his lunged forward, jabbing his fist forward into Erikson's gut and sent him tumbling backwards into a nearby console. Even without armour a Spartan could pack a punch.

Before anyone had the chance to recover and try to stop him, Steven turned at strode off the bridge, wanting to be anywhere but around anyone else.

Erikson got to his feet, clutching his gut, "Go and get him and escort him to the brig. That's an order Noble", he was already getting his voice back and his face had gone red with fury, a vein pulsed on his forehead. The remained of Noble snapped to attention and left the bridge, hurrying off to find Steven. As they strode down the corridor Carter began to feel concerned, Steven had assaulted a superior officer, a court marshall offence, he just hoped he wouldn't compound the situation with more foolishness and try to escape capture.

After almost an hour of searching they found Steven on the observation deck, just staring out at the stars. Carter walked up slowly behind him, careful not to sound too authoritative with his footsteps. "Steven, what happened back there?" he asked, sitting down beside his friend. Steven sighed but didn't turn to face him, "Our talk yesterday brought up some memories I though I'd conquered, and when Erikson kept trying to force them into the open, I guess I something just snapped."

Carter nodded respectfully, "I'm sorry Steven but I have orders to take you to the brig, and that's one order I can't not follow, I already disobeyed him once today." Steven stood and looked at Carter, "Take me away then Sir."

…...…...…...…...…...…...…

Steven felt the ship shudder slightly as it dropped out of slipspace. They had finally arrived at Reach, Steven had been stuck in the brig for the last three days with no one to talk to, left to think on what he had done.

A few minutes later a pair of ODSTs came along and unlocked the cell, "Come with us." the larger one ordered and Steven followed quietly along behind them, his hands cuffed as they had been for days. As they walked along the corridor the civilian refugees from Harmony stared at him, he supposed the sight of a seven foot tall Spartan in cuffs looked rather strange, especially given their good reputation.

The two ODSTs lead him to the hangar bay where a Pelican waited for him, the rest of Noble already aboard. They all watched him as he stepped aboard, their faces grim. Steven felt as though he was walking to the gallows. He sat down in the seat beside the hatch and it swung shut behind him, leaving the ODSTs behind. Moments later the dropship's engines revved up and it soared out of the hangar and into space above Reach.

As the descended through the atmosphere Emile leant over towards him, "Don't worry too much, we may have found you a loophole." He sat back in his chair and fell silent for the remainder of the journey. When they finally reached the surface the dropship touched down on one of the Castle Base landing pads. As the hatch swung down Steven saw three people stood outside, one bore the rank of Vice Admiral, the other was Doctor Halsey, the third was not exactly a person, it was the holographic representation of an AI. It struck him how similar it looked to Cortana although she was yellow rather than blue.

The Admiral stepped forward in front of the assembled Spartans all of whom snapped off crisp salutes except Steven who was still in cuffs. Finally the Admiral spoke, "My name is Vice Admiral Harper, we have set up a meeting between the three of us", he motioned to himself, Halsey and the AI, "And 294." Steven stepped forwards past the others and came to attention as best he could. The Admiral sighed and touched a small electronic device against the cuffs and they dropped to the ground with a clatter.

Harper turned and lead the Steven, Halsey and the AI off the pad, leaving the rest of Noble looking utterly lost.

Once they arrived at Halsey's office the AI, who Steven had been told was called Kalmiya, had transferred to a holopad on Halsey's desk. Halsey and Harper took up their seats on the far side of the table. Halsey spoke first, "Steven, I gather you have some intelligence you wish to share with us beyond what you told Ackerson?" She arched her fingers and rested her elbows on the desk, staring intently at him.

"Yes Doctor, I wanted you to know that I know where I can get technology for humanity that could change the course of the war."

**Author's Note: Sorry it's been a while since the last update, I will be posting a poll on my profile to decide what direction this story will head in so I urge you to give me your opinion! As ever more reviews means more updates!**


	27. Chapter 27

**Onyx: June 20th 2545**

**Location: Castle Base, Reach**

Dr Halsey sighed loudly and leant back in her chair once Steven had finished telling explaining what he knew about Onyx. "So basically," she said, "this planet, Onyx, contains Forerunner technology that can be accessed through some ancient ruins on the surface?"

"Exactly", he replied, "If we can get inside then I know we can gain access precise slipspace jumps, in transit comms and… Engineers left by the Forerunners themselves." Harper looked slightly taken aback at the news of this new source of technology. "I think I know who you should speak too about this, I want you back aboard the _Jericho_ bound for Earth as soon as possible. You need to speak to someone within ONI and she can decide on your next course of action."

Steven shifted uncomfortably at the mention of more time onboard _Jericho_. Halsey noticed this and came to his aid, "If you are at all concerned about Captain Erikson you need not worry, he's had the debriefing of his life after he tried to get you brought up for court martial. As it turned out his wife was among those who didn't make it off the planet, he's been relieved of duty for the time being."

Steven suddenly felt awful, he hadn't known Erikson had just lost his wife, but he still couldn't help but feel guilty for driving the man over the edge. "Could you pass on my condolences to him." he asked, glancing at Harper, he inclined his head smiling slightly.

Halsey and Harper both stood, indicating that the meeting was over, "Your Pelican will be waiting for you where you left it." Harper said, motioning to the door. Steven saluted, turned and strode from the room. As he wandered through the corridors his mind was abuzz, he had the chance to single handedly change the course of the war, save billions of lives and at the same time, he wondered why he had left it so long, he had watched worlds burn, witnessed the deaths of innocent people and it wasn't until now that he had acted.

When he arrived at the landing pad he found the rest of Noble sat around in the Pelican, watching him expectantly, "Well?" Carter asked as Steven clambered aboard and the Pelican began to lift off, "I'll explain on the way." he replied, smiling slightly to himself, "Where to?" Jun asked, leaning in a little closer.

"Earth."

**Big Maggie: June 23rd 2545**

**Location: Onboard UNSC _Jericho, _En route to Earth**

He could hear gunfire all around him and as he spun around wildly to look behind him to make out a blurry shape behind him, yelling for him to run. He looked down at his hands but all he could see there was a brilliant purple glow. Just as the glow intensified he looked up again and right in front of him was his father's face. Blood stained, the skin peeling, it called to him. "Help me!"

Steven woke up with a slight yell, whacking his head into the top of his bunk. He winced and massaged his head as the last moment of the dream swam in his head. It was the first time in weeks he had dreamt about those last moments with his father and he thought he was finally getting past his grief but he knew it would take time for the nightmares to go away entirely.

Suddenly, red light began to strobe around the rooms and the main lights came on, the intercom buzzed and Commander Lark's voice came in, "All personnel, we have been rerouted to assist with the defense of New Llanelli. All combat teams report to your stations, repeat all combat teams to your stations." Steven leapt out of his bunk and began pulling on the fatigues out of his footlocker. All around him the rest of Noble were doing the same and together they ran off to the armoury.

When they arrived their MJOLNIR was already waiting for them on their construction frames. Each member of the team pulled off their fatigues just minutes after putting them on and slipped on the undersuits for the armour. Each frame was manned by a technician to make sure the system encountered no problems. Steven stepped up onto the raised platform and put his feet onto the marked pads, activating the system. Slowly it began building his armour up around him. First the leg plates went on and then over these the boots rose up from the floor around his feet.

The chest plates swung down from above and magnetic clamps swung over to join the front and rear sections. This was followed by the shoulder armour and then the plates for his arms. Finally, his helmet came down from above, sealing the armour with a hiss.

He stepped down from the platform and the technician took an involuntary step backwards, a Spartan in full MJOLNIR was an intimidating sight. He strode over to the rifle rack and grabbed and MA5C and five spare mags.

Once they had all grabbed their equipment the ship shuddered and dropped out of slipspace. Moments later the intercom buzzed again, "Noble team to the bridge, immediately." They looked at each other uncomfortably, why would they have been called to the bridge. When they arrived they found the bridge crew working quickly at their stations, while Commander Lark looked out of the front viewport. Moments later he turned around and looked sadly at them.

"I'm afraid we were too late, they've already started glassing. Everyone's going to stand down but we have to stay here for the time being in case anyone manages to get off planet. If any of you want you can stay up here and watch." Lark explained. Jun sighed and brought his fist down on the railing, denting the metal, "I don't want to see this." he turned and left, the rest of the team left, leaving only Steven behind, he had never watched a glassing but now wanted to out of some morbid sense of interest.

Lark nodded to him and walked back over to his command console and began issuing orders to the crew, getting them ready to leave once they had finished in system. Steven walked over to the window and looked down at the planet below, the Covenant fleet swarming over the surface, their glassing beams scorching the surface. They all moved in perfect synchronization, making a grid pattern as they went.

Steven sat there, his face expressionless simply contemplating the sight of millions of lives being extinguished in a wave of flame. After three hours the planet was a flaming ball, where the cities had been were regions of slightly more blackened surface. Areas of the surface glowed almost white hot as the fleet began to pull off.

Even as they did a single massive Covenant carrier descended from beyond where the fleet had been swarming the planet. It hung in high orbit and bright light began to gather below the bulbous centre sections and a plasma stream struck the planet and the carrier began to move around, carving a shape into the planet. After little over an hour the glassing was finished, a circular shape with a line come vertically from the bottom of it. The centre of the circle contained a cross shape with a single dot in three of the segments.

Finally, the carrier began to pull away and formed up with the rest of the Covenant fleet and together they jumped into slipspace. Steven lowered his eyes, staring at the floor in distress. "Thank you Commander." Steven said as he left the bridge, heading for the bunk room.

When he got back to the room he found the others sitting around a crate playing cards. Once they noticed that he had entered Kat stood up and went over to him, "I take it's over?" Steven nodded sadly, she rested a hand on his shoulder. "I know, seeing a glassing takes a lot out of you. It's one of those things you never get used to."

Steven smiled grimly and went over to lie on his bunk and was asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.

He looked up and glanced around him, the ground was barren and high above him he could see the sleek outlines of Covenant battlecruisers in low orbit, their plasma lines glowing white hot as they rained plasma down on the land, burning it to cinders. Slowing heading towards him he could see the Covenant carrier back again, it's glassing beam charging. The white hot beam lanced down barely 500 metres in front of him and continued towards him. As soon as the beam was on top of him everything vanished in a white flash and was replaced by pure darkness. After what seemed like forever he heard a voice, slowly getting louder until it was almost deafening and he recognised the voice, it was he father. As soon as he recognised it his father's face began swimming before his eyes, "Help me, help son!"

He awoke with a start, his body wet with sweat, his breath heavy. He ran his hands through his damp hair and shuddered, he would never get used to dream like that, the result of years of death and fighting and glassing and losing the ones he loved.

He got out of his bunk and grabbed his wash bag, heading for the showers. He stood there letting the water wash over his face, trying to wash away his nightmare. After ten minutes, however, the water shut off, limited as water was onboard a ship. He sighed and grabbed his towel, drying himself off and headed back to the bunk room, pulling on his fatigues.

He headed to the mess hall and sat down for breakfast, after just a few minutes he was joined by the rest of Noble. They all sat in amicable silence, eating there way through the large meals they needed to keep their augmented bodies in top condition. The intercom buzzed, "This is Commander Lark, we will be dropping out of slipspace in thirty minutes, will Noble team report to the bridge asap."

Carter sighed and carried his tray over to the disposal hatch, the rest of them dropped off their trays and headed for bridge. When they arrived Lark was waiting for them at the central briefing area. "Dispose of the formalities Noble, gather around."

"We should be reaching Earth in twenty minutes, once we arrive you'll be heading down to the Sydney for a meeting at Bravo-6, there's a high ranking officer who wants to meet with you. You'll need to bringing out your dress uniforms, dismissed."

They filed off the bridge and back to their rooms, each of them produced their dress uniforms from the shared wardrobe. Steven pulled it on, and pulled on his dress shoes, polished by hand for hours until they attained a perfect finish. By the time they were all ready the ship shuddered as it dropped out of slipspace. "Lets move out Noble." Carter ordered and they headed for the hangar, their dress shoes clicking on the titanium floor.

When they arrived in the hangar the Pelican was waiting for them. The pilot ran up the engines and took them out of the hangar and into space above Earth. He looked out and below him could see the continents he knew so well, for the first time, he was visiting 2545 Earth.

**Author's Note: Sorry the update has taken so long, I've been bogged down with work. Please remember to fill in my poll to decide where this story will go, and remember, more reviews means more updates!**


	28. Chapter 28

**Parangosky: June 23rd 2545**

**Location: Pelican En Route To Bravo Six**

The Pelican shuddered a little as it dropped in through the atmosphere and roared through the skies of Earth's southern hemisphere. Spread out below them Steven could see the sprawling metropolis of Sydney, the location of the HIGHCOM facility, Bravo Six. He was slightly nervous, while he hadn't been told exactly who he would be meeting he had a sneaking suspicion and the idea of meeting this giant among insects terrified him.

The Pelican began to slow and with a high pitched whine the engines lowered the Pelican onto one of the landing pads on the roof of the complex, only a small proportion compared to what was below ground of the facility could be seen from above.

As the ramp of the Pelican lowered and the Noble team strode out into the sunlight, blinking rapidly at the sudden increase in light levels. Standing on the far side of the pad was a young looking officer bearing the bars of a lieutenant, looking at the expectantly. The clack of their dress shoes on the concrete surface was in perfect unison as they marched over to the young lieutenant he hardly seemed fazed by the sight of seven Spartans making a bee line for him, clearly a man used to being around raw power.

"Welcome, Noble team, my name is Lieutenant Dorsey, please follow me, the Admiral is waiting for you." he said, turning to head off into the darkness of the doorway leading off the landing pad. They followed after him, heading single file through the twisting turning passages of the HIGHCOM complex. Finally, their small group arrived at a lift and they all piled in, a tight squeeze given their combined bulk. Dorsey input his key code and retina scan and the lift came to life, moving down with such a smooth motion Steven wouldn't have noticed the movement if not for a slight lurch in his stomach.

It was several minutes before the lift disgorged them into a waiting room with three sofas, a bookcases around the room and a clouded glass wall with a single door hiding whatever office was located here in the bowels of HIGHCOM. To their left was a small glass desk with a computer and some files on the surface along with a single coffee cup. "Wait here please." Dorsey said and went over knocked twice, and entered through the clouded glass door. Steven caught a glimpse of a large wooden desk before the door swung shut, hiding the room beyond.

The six Spartans stood awkwardly, carefully adjusting the dress until nothing was out of place, nothing but the best for an Admiral. A minute or two later Dorsey remerged from the office and nodded politely, "The Admiral will see you know." He headed over to the desk and took a seat at it, almost immediately beginning typing rapidly on the computer.

Noble team filed into the room and line up before the Admiral's desk, each snapping to a perfect and rigid attention as the chair behind the desk spun around.

Whatever Steven had been expecting of Parangosky it was not what he saw before him, a small old woman, slightly frail looking but with eyes as sharp as any he had seen on someone half her age. Her eyes flicked from Spartan to Spartan, piercing each of them, Steven felt as though he was having his very soul examined. Finally, she relaxed her gaze and a wry smile crossed her lips. "So, you're the infamous Noble team, I must say I was expecting you all to be… taller." she chuckled slightly and the Spartans shifted uncomfortably. She instantly switched back to business, ignoring their obvious discomfort.

"I understand you", she gestured vaguely towards Steven with her hand, "have some information that could, and I quote, _change the course of the this war_. Please, do enlighten me." She sat back and arched her fingers, staring expectantly at him, he had the uncomfortable urge to loosen his collar before he took a step forwards.

"Yes ma'am, I will assume you are aware of the circumstance under which I have my information and will simply skip on to giving it to you directly. The planet we trained on", he gestured to the other Spartans, "Is not a planet. It is a hollow shell made of millions of machines called Sentinels built by an ancient race called the Forerunner, of course you already know that Onyx has Forerunner links thanks to the ruins found there. Amongst those ruins is a portal which leads _inside_ the planet. The presence of the planet in our space if just a small part of it, the real planet is inside a giant slipspace bubble, accessible through this portal, as you may have realised from the description this is an enormous Dyson sphere. Inside there is a cache of Forerunner technology as well as a colony of engineers capable of integrating and maintaining it."

The only hint the Admiral had even listened to him was a slight raise of her eyebrows and she raised a hand to silence him, "Let me say before you tell me what you propose I do about this that _if_ this is some type of joke this is the wrong place to make it."

Steven gulped, shifted slightly and then continued, sweat dripping down his back, "I would propose that the Forerunner ruins on Onyx are further excavated to find the portal and gain this technology."

Parangosky narrowed her eyes, "Now, about your warning to have the crystal from the museum on Sigma Octanus removed?" she question, seemingly ignoring his suggestion. Steven nodded, "Yes ma'am, if that crystal is carefully examined you'll find it contains a set of coordinates imprinted on it by the Forerunners, one set of coordinates were for Reach, the Covenant is going to find out about the crystal and invade Sigma Octanus to find it. I knew what would happen if they did, Reach would fall, humanity would fall back to Earth, fighting with their backs against the wall, so I advised the crystal be moved to protect Reach."

For a moment Parangosky seemed stunned but she quickly regained her composure, "Please leave, I need to discuss this with others, make arrangements. Quarters have been prepared for you."

Steven stepped back in line with Noble and as one they saluted before turning and leaving the office.

…...…...….

Once the Spartans had left the room Parangosky rested her elbows in the table, her joints cracking from the movement. "BB," she called quietly. She briefly thought over the history of her AI, he had infrequently tried to find out about her history with AIs and she had so far stubbornly refused, it would hurt his feelings, that notion made her chuckle, if he found out that he was just one in a long line of BBs, little did he know it but he was the third model run off from the same cloned brain which had produced the first, spectacular AI. She had always liked a sense of continuity with her AIs personalities.

"Yes Admiral?" his hologram, a simple black box, from where he got his name, popped up beside her. "Can I have your opinion?" she asked, she had no need to explain what the opinion was on, he had been watching the entire meeting.

"After the crystal was removed our scientists began studying it, there are indeed strange markings on the crystal although they have yet to be deciphered as coordinates. As for the truth of what he said, all readings and visual queues my sensors could detect he was indeed being truthful." the AI explained, his hologram strangely motionless.

"I had a nasty feeling you'd say that. Alright here's what I'm going to do…"

…...…...…

Steven lay back on the pillow and exhaled a breath he didn't know he'd been holding, he could feel that his nerves had been severely jangled by his encounter with Parangosky, he hoped, he prayed, that she would listen to him, take his advice to heart. Here he was, best placed to change the course of the war in humanity's favour, to fulfill his father's last wish that he should do his duty.

He heard footsteps and Kat came and sat at the end of her bed, not bothering to try and hide the emotions playing across her face, concern, interest… fear. "What happened when Reach fell?" she asked, her voice little more than a whisper. He could hear the rest of Noble perk up hearing the opening conversation, all gathering around to listen. Steven winced slightly at the question and sat up, bracing himself to tell them.

"The Covenant came with a single carrier at first, cloaked above the planet, landing troops and beginning a land invasion to take out our eyes and ears before the main fleet arrived. We were there, Noble team, almost all of us, in the end we took out the carrier but we were too late, the rest of the fleet arrived and it was hopeless. There was an AI, one more advanced than any other being used by Doctor Halsey to gather information from a Forerunner artifact from under Sword Base, by the time we had managed to evac the AI, only one of us was left, one of us that doesn't seem to be in this universe…"

His voice trailed off, he didn't want to get into the details of how a good proportion of the people stood before him died, they didn't need that. Carter spoke up, "Steven, it took courage to come out with all this information, you didn't know what would happen but you did it for the good of humanity, regardless of personal loss. Humanity owes you a debt of gratitude, but I'm afraid there's no way you're gonna get it until we win this war."

He could see an emotion burning silently in Carter's eyes, something behind the burning confidence he had as the leader of Noble, resolve.

Steven nodded gratefully and lay back on his bunk, shutting his eyes, indicating to the others that he needed some space. It was late, he hadn't realised just how late until he saw the clock on the wall read midnight. He slipped under the covers shut his eyes, it was over an hour before he fell asleep, his mind whizzing with thoughts of what might be to come.

…...…...…

The next day came and once again Noble team was called in the depths of Bravo Six, to the office of Margaret Parangosky, they stood the waiting room, once more in their dress uniforms ready to hear her judgement. When Dorsey finally called them in they found Parangosky was not alone, there was a woman with her, looking to be in her early thirties, she was tall by normal standards, although she was over a foot shorter than Steven.

This time around there were six chairs, awaiting the members of Noble, Parangosky and the unknown woman sat on other side of the desk, their faces neutral. "Please, take a seat." said the Admiral, motioning to the chairs. They all took their seats and Parangosky began. She smiled, but to Steven it still looked like a shark's smile.

"Today's briefing will be short and to the point, I have decided that the presence of Forerunner artifacts is something we can no longer ignore, I am deploying this team under the command of Captain Osman onboard the Prowler, _Razor's Edge_, in search of Forerunner artifacts with the aim of advancing our technology as fast as possible. This is just the opportunity we need to gain the upper hand in this war, I'm afraid the only resources I can offer are those onboard the Prowler when you take command. Best of luck to you."

**Author's Note: I'm sorry it's been so long since I updated, I decided to take a break over Christmas and New Year to give me a chance to think on what direction to take with this. I know have a good idea of where to go with and, to make it clear, Steven's knowledge goes up to just before Halo 4 was released, therefore, the Kilo Five trilogy is up to it's second book. Please review, and remember, I'm always keen to hear your suggestions.**


	29. Chapter 29

_**Razor's Edge**_**: June 23rd 2545**

**Location: Orbit Above Earth**

The Pelican eased in through the airlock and settled down in the tight confines of the Prowler's tiny hangar. Carter ran the Pelican's engines down until they finally fell silent and the hangar doors closed pressurizing the hangar and the frigid vacuum beyond. The rear ramp of the Pelican lowered and disgorged the ONI Captain and six Spartans. They took a few steps away before Osman turned back to face them, "I should hope you all know the layout of a Prowler by now, all your belongings should in your room already, meet me on the bridge in ten minutes." She turned and strode off leaving the Spartans to find their way to their bunk room.

Fortunately, Osman was right, Noble had been aboard Prowlers all too often over their long careers. When they arrived at the room they found that their possessions were indeed there already. Steven couldn't help but look through his things from back home, he always broke into a faint smile when he saw things from his universe in the Halo universe, although after everything that had happened he still felt a tinge of sorrow for the friends and family he had lost in his life.

When they arrived on the bridge Osman was already waiting for them, staring at the forward display screen, talking quietly with whatever AI was onboard, she turned to face them, straightening up. "Before we get started there are a few things I want made clear, I know am I am your superior officer but I am of the opinion that if I seem to be doing something foolish it's your responsibility to let me know it." Each Spartan shifted uncomfortably, there were very few officers with this sort of mindset and it didn't mix too well with the formal way they had interacted with previous officers. Osman seemed to notice there reaction and clarified her point, "That also means that with so few of us, I'm running a less formal structure, no need to salute every time you walk past me."

The rules laid out, they all felt more comfortable, "Steven", she said, it felt strange to be called by his first name by someone outside the team, "I must admit I defer to your expertise at this point, where do _you _think we should go?"

Steven paused for a moment considering, "Onyx", he replied, "We need to find and entrance to the Dyson sphere."

…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…

Moro 'Valamee strode through the passageway of the _Zealous Exultation_ towards the bridge, the few Sangheili around scattered out of his way, he was furious and was making it plain for all to see, his mandible flared, his footsteps heavy and threatening. The bridge doors slid open and he stepped up before the shipmaster. His commander looked down at him from his command chair. "Speak, 'Valamee" he commanded, waving a hand to emphasise his command.

"Shipmaster, I must speak with the Hierarchs, I must demand a special assignment. The _demon_ has wounded me and fled without punishment, it is a matter of honour that I pursue." even through he rage he must still choose his words carefully, if he angered the shipmaster he could lose his station. "You are lucky brother, for even as we speak, we near our arrival to the sacred station, High Charity. Upon our arrival you may leave in a Seraph to seek and audience with the council, go now, await our arrival and may the grace of the Forerunners go with." the shipmaster replied, leaning back in his seat, ignoring Moro once more.

Leaving the bridge Moro could not help but feel some degree of displeasure at the arrogance of his captain, but it was not his place to complain, simply to obey. He had been a member of the Covenant military for the last ten years, he had been too young to fight when the war first began, but he had eagerly gone to war as soon as he was of age, he had earned his place in the Special Operations branch of the Sangheili Military. As a member of such a sacred institution he could not let his injury go unavenged.

The hangar was almost empty when he arrived only a trio of grunts stood around, refueling the Seraphs and a Huragok drifted around, making repairs and improving whatever it could get it's hands on. He often marveled at the Huragok, they were truly a gift from the gods.

He felt a slight lurch from the ship, they had arrived, he boarded the Seraph the grunts had finished refueling and activated the engines, the tiny fighter rose from the deck and shot out of the hangar and into open space. He quickly transmitted the proper codes to allow him past the home fleet surrounding High Charity and carefully weaved around the much larger assault carriers and destroyers that guarded the station. As he got closer he stuck to the flight plan he had been given, even a slight deviation and he would be vaporized.

He docked the Seraph on a section of the station reserved for those seeking an audience with the council, once he had exited the fighter he made his way down the long corridor that lead to the council chambers, lined with honour guards who stood, still as statues. Finally, he arrived at a small desk manned by a single Sangheili dressed in the robed such as worn by those who served the high council. "Brother, why have you come?" the Sangheili asked, straightening up to look at the newly arrived warrior.

"I seek and audience with the council." Moro replied, towering over the smaller council representative. Seemingly unintimidated the representative gestured to the seat beside the door, "The council is in session, you must wait for a time." Moro muttered under his breath but sat down.

It was over two full cycles before he was finally permitted into the chamber. The sight was spectacular, the council itself had retired for the day and he found himself alone in the presence of the three Prophet Hierarchs, Truth, Mercy and Regret. He stood before them and fell to one knee, bowing his head before the messengers of the gods.

Truth moved forward a little on his throne, "Rise warrior, and state your purpose here." Moro stood but kept his stance humble, "Noble Prophets, my name is Moro 'Valamee and my injury", he gestured to his two missing mandibles, "Is a result of the human's demons, I would request permission to seek out the one responsible and cleave his flesh from his bones." he spat the last part, is anger once again rising within him.

Truth rested a hand on his shoulder, clearly having noticed his anger rising. " 'Valamee, your request is… unusual. However, I understand that within your branch of the Covenant honour in battle is a way of life, to have been so badly disfigured without having gained revenge… you have lost almost all of your precious honour. Wait here, we shall discuss this a while."

Truth's hover throne back up a and along with Mercy and Regret they gathered in discussion, after a few minutes Mercy floated back to him, " 'Valamee, are you prepared to sacrifice all that you are, everything that you have, in the name of our holy Covenant, to regain your lost honour."

Moro bowed humbly and replied, "I am." he voice strong and unwavering. Mercy seemed assured, "Follow me, warrior." Moro followed Mercy through the rear entrance of the council chamber and out over a great chasm with a pod like structure at the centre. The entrance to the pod almost seemed to glow as they approached, preventing him from seeing what lay within.

Once they had passed through the entrance Moro saw that the room was lined with dark vessels, all the same sleek shape with purple lights glowing dimly along them. At the centre of the this room was a pod which was vertical. As it swung open it revealed it's contents, an set of armour so ancient it appeared on the wallpaintings within the ancient citadels of Sanghelios, dating back to before the San 'Shyuum-Sangheili alliance, the armour of the Arbiter.

…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…

The Prowler dropped out of slipspace and entered into an orbit above Onyx, below the planet was an almost pristine green blanket, jungles barely disturbed since humanity had discovered the planet. Since Doctor Halsey had taken over the Spartan III program she had deemed it necessary to move them back to Reach, although still keeping them highly classified, Parangosky gave her little choice on that, therefore the planet was only inhabited by a small team working to excavate the Forerunner ruins.

"This is Captain Serin Osman of the Office of Naval Intelligence to codename: ONYX, we are coming down to examine your progress in the Forerunner ruins." Osman clicked the radio off and waited for a response.

"This is Onyx control, certainly Captain, land at our camp and we'll be happy to show you." the voice cut off and Osman stood thoughtfully for a moment but then nodded, "Right, everyone to the Pelican, we're heading down to the surface, Richard?" she waited for the AI to appear, his avatar was that of an ancient king of England, wearing a crown and wielding a sword. "Yes my lady?" he said, bowing his head towards her. She rolled her eyes, unimpressed by his theatrics, "You have the bridge."

Together she and the Spartans headed for the Pelican, grabbing weapons from the weapon racks in the hangar, no need to go down unprepared, just in case. The ride down through the atmosphere was uneventful thanks to Osman's skill as a pilot and they landed just outside the small camp with a quarter of an hour. The Spartans filed out of the Pelican, forming a perimeter around the Pelican, awaiting their escort from the camp. And they waited. It was a full ten minutes before there was any sign of movement. It was only thanks to their advanced hearing that the Spartans heard the sound of a rifle being cocked nearby and the spun around only to have round pour in from every angle.

Steven darted away, heading for the tree line. He leapt through the brush and vanished into the shadows. He looked back out at the Pelican and saw the others had also scattered, all except for Osman what had only had her sidearm, still clipped to her thigh when the assault had begun. He could make out a trio of armed men standing around her, rifle aimed at her head. One of them produced a megaphone, "We know you're out there, if you try and follow us, we will kill the good Captain." his voice was taunting.

Beside him heard a slight rustle but to his relief his motion tracker showed it was Kat, she whispered to him over the single beam comms, "Carter told me we're going to RV on you since it's the best location to launch our rescue op from." she explained. Steven flashed his status light green and lay down, making sure he couldn't be seen in case any more enemies were hanging around the Pelican. It was ten minutes before the rest of the team arrived, Emile was the last to arrive having had to dodge around the edges of an enemy patrol.

Once they were all together they moved further away from the away from the Pelican to take shelter in a hollow in a large tree. "Alright", Carter began, he voice taking on the tone it always did when he was planning an op, "Jun, Maria, you skirt around past the Pelican and provide us covering fire on my mark, take out the ones immediately around Osman first. Steven, you and Emile are going to sneak into the compound and engage as soon as Jun and Maria have. Kat, you move in behind to mop up any final resistance and I'll provide overwatch for any returning patrols. Move out and take up your positions."

They moved out in their groups and Steven made is way further around the large clearing containing the compound until he was just behind the largest building where, they had assumed, Osman would be imprisoned.

He waited in silence, utterly motionless, with Emile lying beside him on the ground, tense around to charge forward at the first shot. Suddenly everything happened at once, the radio came to life and Carter called in, "Osman is on the first floor of the largest building, Steven and Emile, use your ascenders to get to the roof and drop in through the sky light. Jun, Maria on my mark… mark."

From an indistinguishable point in the far tree line rounds came flying out and rained in through the windows, cutting down the rebels stood on lookout. Steven and Emile stood and charged forwards, rifles raised as they leapt over the six foot wall, barely stepping on it as they went. Each grabbed the grappler from their belt kit and launched it towards the roof, the cable snapping taut as they were yanked up into the air and climbed up onto the roof. Looking around they saw two guards just beginning to turn at the heavy thuds of the two Spartans arriving. They were too slow, Emile and Steven each raised their rifles, spitting a hail of bullets into the two men, knocking them to the ground, out of the fight.

Emile looked down through the skylight and saw that only Osman and a pair of rebels remained, one of whom had a pistol to her head. They dropped down like cats, landing silently before the two rebels, each putting a round into a target. The one to one side os Osman collapsed to the ground. The other winced as the bullet tore through his side with a spray of blood. "Weapons down! Weapons down!" he screamed waving the pistol frantically at Osman who looks surprisingly unconcerned.

Both Spartans lowered their rifles, unwilling to risk Osman's life. "Good… good," the rebel muttered to himself, trying to regain control of the situation he stood there for a moment, seemingly unsure what to do next.

Osman rolled her eyes and with a vicious swing of her elbow backed up by her other hand over her fist knocked him in the side, right by his bullet wound. The man screamed in agony and released his grip on her and she leapt to one side as Steven and Emile both raised their weapons and fired, silencing his screams as he was torn to bloody rivulets.

Osman stood up from the floor and straightened out her uniform giving the two Spartans an appraising look, she chuckled, knocking some dust off her sleeve, "Well I couldn't let the bastard beat you could I?"

**Author's Note: There you go, another chapter, I hope to keep progress at a steady rate work dependent. Remember, please leave a review and I'm always open to hear any ideas you guys have for the story.**


	30. Chapter 30

**Remains: June 23rd 2545**

**Location: Surface of Onyx**

Carter prodded the body of one of the rebels with his foot as he and Osman surveyed the wreckage of the base. From what they could work out either some of the soldiers stationed on Onyx had been less than loyal to the UNSC or a small group of rebels had found the system and been able to take out the local units. Osman surmised that due to Onyx's classified status the former seemed more likely.

"I've got satellites from the _Razor_ mapping the area before we head out to the ruins, see if the excavations have progressed since the maps were last done and to keep us updated." Osman explained. The small group waited around for a time, taking it in turns to keep watch until Osman's tacpad finally bleeped confirmation that mapping was complete. Richard's voice came over the comm, "I have bad news Captain, the excavations have progressed considerably and there are also a significant number of hostiles encamped around the site."

Suddenly the ground shuddered and an explosion could be heard in the distance. Osman glanced at the map and winced slightly, "Well, now we know how the excavations have been progressing so fast." she muttered angrily, the rebels could well be destroying vast quantities of information and technology with their efforts.

"All right", she turned back to the squad, "I'm taking the Pelican back to _Razor's Edge_, inform the Admiral of this development, in the meantime Lieutenant I am tasking you with getting me that excavation site back." She turned and strode off but not before calling back, "And a few prisoners to interrogate would be nice." She boarded the Pelican and the engines roared as it lifted off and took the Captain back to the orbiting Prowler.

Carter turned to the rest of the squad, "Alright, here's what we'll do, Emile, take the explosives we have and set up a diversion to draw some of them away. While they're out investigating Kat and Steven, you lay into the remainders with Maria and Jun providing sniper support from the trees. Emile, I'll be with you hiding near the diversion to follow their men as they head back to the ruins once the main assault begins. We'll get them from behind when they aren't expecting it."

The attack explained they all moved to their appointment locations, while Emile had a hunt in the surrounding buildings for any stockpile of explosives. When he eventually did he smiled evilly to himself, piled up in a small storehouse were dozens of crates of mining explosives, clearly what the rebels had been using for their excavations. Designed to crack solid rock, the explosives would work beautifully.

Steven glanced around his HUD to check his ammo count and the locations of his team mates. He could only assume Emile has set up one hell of a diversion given how long he was taking. Finally, after what felt like an hour Emile's status light flashed green, he was ready.

Further up the team roster Carter flashed red, then orange, then green. A countdown followed by an almighty roar. The ground shuddered, trees collapsed from the force of the blast and Steven's armour automatic sound mufflers kicked in to protect his ears from being ruptured. As the sound died away and bits of smoking earth and tree rained down around them Steven momentarily wondered just how much explosives Emile had used for his distraction. He could hear shouts from the rebel camp and saw a group of around ten of the total assembly of thirty rebels run off into the jungle to investigate.

Kat flashed her status green, time for she and him to engage. Moving swiftly the began their attack, raining down hot lead on the remaining Insurrectionists even as they tried to see where it was coming from to return fire. By the time they had got their act together only twelve of them remained. They began to return fire and Steven and Kat were forced to take cover behind a collapsed tree, leveled by Emile's distraction. Even as the rebels continued to force the Spartans heads down bullets came in from another direction, Maria and Jun taking out targets from the shadows of the canopy. It was only a few more minutes before the ten rebels who had left to investigate returned to find only five of their fellows remaining.

No matter what else Steven could say about these men, they were well trained as they quickly rallied their remaining forces and tried to prepare a counterattack. However, by this time Carter and Emile were coming in from their flank and began cutting them down grass. Taking advantage of their new direction of focus Kat and Steven stood again and charged forwards, leaping clear over the tree trunk and ending up in the midst of the remaining Innies, taking down the last few.

Noble team gathered in the remains of the enemy forces to plan their next move. As Jun came into the group he turned to Emile, "What the hell did you use to distract them with?" he asked, he sounded shaken, "I almost fell out of my tree!"

"Yeah sorry about that", Emile said rubbing the back of his neck, "I wanted to make sure I got their attention so I used all their explosives…"

Steven chuckled and put a hand on each of their shoulders, "Well, it certainly had the desired effect." He turned back to Carter, "Sir, should I take Emile and Kat to the distraction site to make sure we haven't attracted any other enemy forces from around the area?"

Carter nodded, "I'll put in a call to Osman, ask if she wants us to proceed while you're out." Steven nodded back and gestured for the other two to come with him. It was around five hundred metres away from their start point that they found the edge of Emile's crater. The trees around were all blasted backwards from the blast, some of them splintered right through. The crater itself was just shy of ten metres deep and was still glowing around the edges from the residual heat. As they looked down into the bottom of the crater something caught Steven's eye, a flash of metal reflecting the sun.

"Captain Osman this is Carter, we have cleared the area of hostiles, advise on next objective." the comm buzzed momentarily as if trying to find a connection and then came to life on the single beam comm. "This is Captain Osman, I can't talk long, a Covenant corvette has arrived in system so we're going dark. I want you to investigate the structure and deal with any forces the Covenant may throw at you."

…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…

Moro 'Valamee paced around the small bridge of the corvette afforded to him by the hierarchs. Once he had boarded to take command he had found himself with a skeleton crew and a brief if concise mission. A new human system had been tentatively identified and he was to reconnoitre. For a while he felt a little disappointed, as the new Arbiter he had been expecting something challenging but then, just before his ship had entered slipspace away from High Charity he received a communique from the High Prophet of Truth, "The planet you are investigating is known to the humans as Onyx, we have deigned this mission worthy of our Arbiter because we have reason to believe it is a training ground for the human's demons."

At the mention of the demons his heart had leapt, perhaps this would be his chance to take vengeance on the lowly creatures which had taken his honour.

As he now looked over the display of the planet below he was deeply sceptical, it appeared that the structures which had once been the human's main base looked deserted. He glowered over the display, his anger evident as the few unggoy bridge crew hurried around to avoid him. If his first mission as Arbiter was a complete failure how did that bode for him?

"Arbiter!" called a young elite manning the sensor station, "We have detected artifacts from the gods on the planet below!"

Moro straightened up and looked closely at the holographic representation of the planet below. He manipulated it and zoomed in to inspect the relevant area. It soon became apparent why the structures had not been obvious, half the area had been obscured by smoke and he could see a fair sized crater not far from the ruins. He growled to himself, "_Humans."_

"Prepare a team to head to the surface, I shall meet them in the hangar!" he roared, stomping from the bridge, unggoy scattering from his path as he strode down the corridor, holding himself at his full height. As he neared the hangar his personal comm bleeped, the sensor officer, "Arbiter, we have detected small numbers of human forces on the surface, I'll have their location uploaded to your Spirit."

"Acknowledged." Moro growled back as he entered the hangar. On the far side he saw that one of the ship's Spirit dropships had indeed been prepared for him and a group of four other elites, all minors, were gathered beside it waiting for him. He silently cursed those who had seen fit to provide him with no other Sangheili more capable than these, any others would have ensured the dropship was ready for him rather than wait.

"Get onboard", he ordered, "I'll fly." He pulled himself into the troop bay and then seated himself inside the rear mounted cockpit. Once the other Sangheili had strapped themselves inside the troop bay he closed the bay doors and started up the dropship. It rose up and he expertly swung it around to face the open hangar doors, then gunned the engine, sending the dropship hurtling out into open space away from the corvette.

As the dropship soared down through the atmosphere Moro called out to his fellow Sangheili in the troop bay, "Brothers, the humans have infested the gifts of our lords, we must cleanse the site in the name of our holy Covenant!"

There was a chorus of cheers from the other Sangheili and they began preparing themselves for combat.

…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…

"Are you seriously considering going down there?" Maria asked incredulously as they looked down at the hole in the bottom of Emile's crater.

When he had looked down into the crater Steven had noticed that at the bottom was a circular metallic glint marking the spot where Emile's explosives had blown a hole in the roof of an underground tunnel. "Our orders are to investigate the Forerunner structures here, the way I see it this is our best chance of getting inside, so yes we are going in. Steven, you take point, Jun you have the rear and keep an eye behind us."

Steven stepped carefully down into the hole, stepping around the patches of earth which still had smoke twisting up from them. He grabbed his magnetic rappel line from his pack and clamped one end to the exposed metal of the hole and the other to his armour. Checking over his rifle and activated the flashlight he then jumped down into the darkness falling for at least five metres before he landed with a heavy thud of metal on metal.

"Clear!" he called back up and waited, staring into the darkness while the others descended behind him.

Once they were all down Carter called out "Alright, lets move out and let me know if you see anything." With that they began to make their way down the passage, away from the light from the hole until the only light source was their flashlights.

The continued in this way for almost an hour, following the twists and turns of the passageway until finally it emerged into a large room a single control panel in the centre of the room with a large hologram projected behind it, all done in the style so common with Forerunner design. The hologram itself showed the surface of Onyx as it must have been before the Forerunner ruins were buried, a vast complex of structures, all seemingly centered around a main focal point. As they approached the room showed no sign of reacting to their presence.

"Hold it Steven." Carter ordered, "Kat, I need any information you have stored on your tacpad that could help understand what this is."

"Sir", Steven interjected, "I know what this hologram is, it's a map. This console is a cartographer for this installation we can use it to navigate our way around if we can find out how it works…" His voice trailed off as he walked over to the console and stared at the controls. As he gazed down at them he experienced something strange, like memories he couldn't have had being unlocked and he began to have a strange, not precise, but instinctive idea of how to use the console.

He reached down with his hands and they began flitting over the controls, pressing buttons and manipulating the map with such speed and accuracy that his mind couldn't keep up with his body until finally, it was done. A light shot from the controls and into his armour and his HUD gained a distinctly Forerunner overlay. He stumbled back from the control panel like he had been stung, leaning against the wall for support.

A hand grabbed him roughly and spun him to face them, "What the _hell_ was that?" Carter shouted, "I ordered you to stay back and you disobeyed a direct order, god knows what damage you could have done."

Steven shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts, "I don't know sir, something came over me and I couldn't not do what I did. It was like I suddenly knew things that I couldn't know but on the upside I have a map. I don't know where it leads but wherever it is there must be a reason why it would lead us there."

Carter released him and took a step back, "Fine, but in future warn me _before_ you do something stupid."

"Yes sir." Steven muttered as he lead them out of the chamber and on into the corridor.

**Author's Note: Sorry it's been so long since my last update but I've been severely bogged down with work and have been catching up on all the Halo books to sure up my knowledge base, particularly with the Forerunner Trilogy. I plan to use this in the story although I won't reveal how. Updates may be slow as I am entering exam season but I will do my best to be more frequent than I have been lately. As usual your opinions and ideas would be appreciated and please review!**


	31. Chapter 31

**Gateway: June 24th 2545**

**Location: Forerunner Ruins On Onyx**

Steven sighed as they rounded another bend in the long winding corridor beneath the surface of Onyx and emerged into yet another bland passageway. He had almost lost track of how long they had been walking for and couldn't begin to guess how far they had walked, following the guidance that overlaid his vision.

"I don't suppose your damn map gives any impression of distance?" Emile asked, his voice laced with irritation at stuck on a hike through metal tunnels.

"I told you already. I have no idea where it's even leading us." he replied, shooting a look at his fellow Spartan.

As luck would have it, it was at this moment that the answer to these questions was revealed. The corridor twisted again and they suddenly found themselves confronted by a solid metal wall stretching from floor to ceiling. "Well that was a good use of our time." Emile muttered darkly striding over to the wall. He swung a vicious kick at the metal but to his surprise his foot passed straight through and his momentum caused him to lose balance, falling backwards with a heavy thud.

Carter stepped forward a knocked his foot against Emile's arm, "Nice work Spartan." Taking a step closer Carter began to examine the wall more closely and put his hand to it, then through it. Slowly, he followed through with the rest of his body and disappeared. Getting to his feet with a grunt and a mutter Emile followed him through.

Just as he was going through Steven glanced back and caught a slight glint of something in the darkness as his flashlight went over it. However, as quickly as it had appeared it again vanished and Steven pressed on through the wall.

…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…

Moro ducked back out of the beam of the flashlight and froze, praying to whoever would listen to him that the human has not seen him. He let out a low breath as the human passed through the wall and was gone. Turning to his fellow elites he muttered for them to follow him. He strode up to the wall and confidently put his hand out to push through. He was stunned when the wall refused him access. "The humans have sealed the entrance behind them, we must find a way through, Thalamee' get the charges from the Spirit, we shall enter the sacred temple."

The young elite hurried off to collect the charges and Moro waited patiently, he was in no rush, soon he would have his revenge.

…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…

Carter motioned for Steven to join him as they all looked around in wonder at the room they had found themselves in. All around were door shaped protrusions, all with solid wall within and with their outsides illuminated by either orange or blue variants of the light decor the Forerunners had so favored. Most incredible of all was the streams of small Forerunner glyphs which streamed down the walls, obviously vast amounts of information but all meaningless to Steven.

"Any ideas?" Carter asked, motioning for Steven to step nearer the terminal at the centre of the room. Steven slung his rifle and cautiously walked towards the bank of glowing symbols, watching for that familiar feeling of deja vu he had felt at the Cartographer. He lightly ran his hand over the controls and the lit brighter and then dimmed back to their previous glow in response to his touch.

"I don't know… last time I just knew what to do, I wasn't in control but I don't have that here." Steven stared down at the controls and then looked up, staring around the room for inspiration. Off in the far corner he saw a slight glint of movement. He rapidly unslung his rifle and pointed it at the movement, Emile had seen it too and they strode towards the source, not shifting their point of aim. When he finally came close enough to shine his torch on the source of the movement he lowered his rifle, when Emile didn't follow suit Steven pushed his muzzle down.

"What are you…?" Emile snapped, turning to look at Steven, despite his helmet Steven could picture the look of irritation on his face at being stopped in his tracks.

"It's only and engineer", Steven explained, "and if I'm right, it's not with the Covenant." He held out a hand and the huragok slowly lifted up from its corner and began running its cilia over his rifle. Steven pulled back instinctively, protective of the weapon. The alien looked up at him with small beady eyes and blinked, then began waving its tentacles in an array of complex movements; sign language.

Steven gestured for the alien to come with him. It tentatively followed, congregating with the rest of the team in the centre of the room. "Care to explain?" Carter asked, crossing him arms and looking impatiently at him.

"I know from my foreknowledge that when the Forerunners built this world they left huragok here with the duty of acting as caretakers for the installation. I think they detected a breach in the underground complex and one came to investigate." he explained. Shoving forward the engineer pushed Maria out of the way and headed for Kat, it reached out with a tentacle for her datapad. She withdrew the pad from its reach and batted its tentacle away. "Let it." Steven instructed.

Cautiously the engineer approached her again, not wanting to be struck again. As soon as it held the pad it began to take it apart, disassembling it into its base components and stacking them up in a whirl of cilia and tentacles before altering a few of them and then reassembling. Once this was complete it plugged its cilia into the port on the side of the pad and it seemed to glow. Steven could only guess what it was doing but he had a good idea of what it might be.

Finally, after several minuted more tinkering it reactivated the pad and ran a tentacle across the screen. It held it up and a few words appeared, _Prone to Drift_. There was a moment of confusion in the minds of all the Spartans before Steven finally figured it out. "That's its name!" he exclaimed, "I think it can speak to us through the data…"

He was cut off as an explosion sounded from the direction they had entered from. "Get down!" Kat yelled, already returning fire into the corridor with her pistol. Instantly Noble fell into combat positions, Maria and Jun dropping back to provide covering fire while the rest of the team took cover behind the terminal, waiting for the enemy to arrive.

It was a moment later that a though clicked in Steven's head. "Active camo!" he called out, firing at a faint shimmer in the air. It flashed blue and resolved in an elite, towering just a few metres away from them. The alien warbled a roar and charged, energy sword igniting. Steven dived to one side to avoid the slash and waited for his teammates to take it out. The help never came, he glanced over and saw they too were busy dealing with more elites, now charging in through the blown out wall of the room. He was quickly drawn back to the action as the elite once more took a swing at him. He quickly ducked under the blade and slammed his elbow into the alien's gut, forcing it back several paces and giving him room to recover. He drew his pistol and combat knife, took aim and fired at the elite's sword arm, the shields flared as his shots connected and he poured fire onto the elite until finally the shields collapsed.

Angered by this, the alien charged forward and sent Steven flying. As he was sent sprawling across the floor he carefully took note of the elite's approach and remained lying, hoping the elite was as predictable as he hoped. He was not disappointed as it reached down and wrapped a massive hand around his neck, lifting him up until his feet no longer touched the floor. It turned him to look into its face and snarled. Swiftly and without mercy Steven swung his arm and jammed his knife in between the armour on the elite's neck. It dropped him and stumbled back, clutching at the wound before it fell to the ground dead.

Steven recovered his knife and turned to see how the others were doing; they had entered into a pitched firefight with several more elites using the remains of the wall as cover. "Any ideas anyone?" Kat called out, her voice half sarcastic half anxious, laced with stress.

She turned in surprise as an entirely artificial voice answered her query, "_I am Prone To Drift, you follow me for make safe Reclaimers._" The voice that came from the data pad sounded badly distorted compared to normal human speech and the grammar was very basic and messy but the message was clear. The huragok was going to help the out.

It carefully lifted up from where Carter had dragged it behind the console and began flitting its tentacles across the controls. After a few moments of this a bright blue flash came from behind them and as Steven turned around he was shocked to see one of the doorways outlined in red fill with a blue swirling vortex; a portal. The engineer began to drift towards it until it finally reached the portal and glided through, vanishing. "We need to move!" Carter yelled over the sounds of the firefight, "Whether we trust the engineer or not we're going to die if we just sit here!" One by one each member of the squad stood and ran towards the portal, diving through. Carter and Steven were the last two through and together they stood, fired a few round off at the advancing elites and dived through the portal.

As soon as they hit ground on the other side, Steven whirled around and aimed his rifle at the still swirling portal, waiting for an elite to come lurching through until finally it shut.

Shakily he got to his feet and turned to look at the rest of the team. They all stood around looking at their surroundings. Steven certainly didn't recognise it and the structures in the distance had a distinctly Forerunner aesthetic. He leant over and rested his hands on his thighs, catching his breath. Suddenly he heard a dull thump and looked up, turning along with everyone else to look at the source. Maria stood a few metres away, her helmet at her feet, staring away from them. Slowly, her movements pained she turned to look at them, at Emile, and smiled slightly, a trickle of blood running down from the corner of her mouth. She keeled forwards, landing with a heavy thump.

Emile rushed forward and turned her to face upwards and shook her. "Maria!" he shouted, desperately cradling her in his arms and shaking her shoulders. Her eyes flickered open briefly and she smiled again, carefully bringing up a hand to rest against his now unhelmeted head. "You know I love you Emile but this is", she gasped in pain for a moment, more blood running both from the corner of her mouth and the holes in her undersuit between the plates of her armour, "the end, goodbye…" her voice trailed off and she slumped back, her head resting against his arm.

For the first time since he had known him Emile's eyes teared up and clenched his jaw, then let out an almighty wail. A stayed like this for several minutes, the others just looking on sadly, totally unsure what to do.

Finally after what felt like an hour he stood, holding her in his arms and walked away.

No one followed.

**Author's Note: Sorry this chapter took so long, I wasn't at home and the internet I have here blocks this website but I've managed to get around it at last! As ever, I value your opinions on where this story should go so please read and review.**


	32. Chapter 32

**Gateway: June 27th 2545**

**Location: Unknown Forerunner Installation**

Steven and Jun carefully made their way along the cliff face, being sure to keep their feet along the narrow ledge that ran along the length of the natural formation. They had first arrived in their current situation three days before and in the intervening time they had set up a base of operations on the edge of the woodland using what they could cobble together from their surroundings and the few provisions they had with them. With this done Carter had sent Jun and Steven out to recon the area over the next few days and radio in if they found anything. The engineer had tried of offer its assistance but after it had brought them somewhere with no obvious means of escape Carter had no plans to let it lead them around.

Worse still no one had seen Emile since he had left following Maria's death and as much as it irked Steven to admit Kat was right in her analysis that Emile would probably return when he was ready. "Mind out." Jun warned as they walked under a waterfall cascading down into the churning sea below. They had been continuing on in this slow advance for the last few hours after ending up down there trying to follow what had looked like a path. Just as he was beginning to wonder whether they had been wise to head down along the cliff face in the first place his concerns were quashed at what they found.

Built into the cliff was a small door, obviously Forerunner in design with light blue lines running around the frame. As Jun approached the door reacted to his presence the blue becoming more vibrant and without a sound the ancient door opened.

Jun made to enter but before he could Steven grabbed his shoulder, "Wait, we'd better radio this in." Jun nodded slightly and Steven opened a comm channel.

"Carter, we've found an entrance to a Forerunner structure built into a cliff face, orders sir?" he asked.

It was just a moment before Carter's voice came back, "Acknowledged, proceed but be careful, if you lose radio contact inside make sure you don't do anything stupid."

"Acknowledged." Steven replied and with that he and Jun headed in through the doorway and into the structure. After they had made it a few metres in the door slid shut behind them, unnoticeable save for the sudden lack of light. Instinctively the two Spartans activated their torches and swept them over the corridor ahead of them before progressing.

What neither of them noticed was the dark shape following them in the shadows behind, a single eye glowing blood red.

…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…

"How did the demons escape?" Valamee' roared as much to himself as they elites gather around him. Angrily he strode over to the Forerunner console and began running his hands across the sacred controls, hoping to repeat whatever process the humans had managed. While he chose not to mention it the most concerning part of this debacle to him was that the humans had had the assistance of an engineer.

He turned back to his subordinates, "Summon the engineer from the ship." He ordered. Immediately one of his subordinates rushed off the fulfill his command, in the meantime he settled on the floor before the Forerunner console to pray for divine assistance.

…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…

They had been slowing making their way downhill over since they entered the Forerunner structure without any deviations or passageways leading off their route. However, eventually the end was in sight, outlined in blue. Just as the first door had this one slid open as they approached, spitting them out into a vast chamber. In the centre was a single metal sphere, easily forty metres in diameter. An intricate pattern of orange lines ran along the outside of the sphere and beneath it a large pit had lightning arcing across its surfaces.

Located at the edge for the pit was a small console, cautiously, his rifle raised, Steven approached the console and was about to lower his hand onto it when Jun gripped his wrist and held him off, "There's no telling what this thing is", he warned, "we'd best call it in and ask what the others think."

Steven stepped away, not wanting to risk temptation around the console. Steven listened in on the conversation with Carter and was surprised to hear the electronic voice of the engineer join in making its feelings known. It was desperate to see what they had found and it took surprisingly little for Carter to agree to its request and both he and Kat left the camp to escort the engineer.

While they waited Steven wandered around the edges of the pit, trying to fathom what possible purpose the sphere could have. It was at that moment he got lucky, if there had not been a lull in the sounds the arcing in the pit then he would never have heard the slight rising hum of something charging. Instinctively he leapt to the ground just in time as a crimson blast of energy swept through where he had been. "Jun!" he called but his fellow Spartan had already opened fire on the source. As he spun around to look for himself Steven was surprised to see a Forerunner Monitor floating above him.

Jun's round pinged off its shield as the its central eye began to glow again, building up a charge. "Wait!" Steven shouted, "Why are you attacking Reclaimers." That seemed to do the trick as the AI's eye began to decrease its glow and it descended to his level.

"I am 546 Destructive Ember guardian of this Cryptum Installation, you have brought others to this place and put my work in peril, now you must die!" The AI once again charged up its laser and fired again just as Steven dived to the side, this time it clipped his shields instantly taking them down. He wouldn't be able to take another hit. Fortunately for him just at that moment Jun had reached him and leapt up for the monitor, wrapping a hand around one of the loops in its frame. Pulling it towards him he wedged a grenade into the AI's frame and pulled the pin, hurling the monitor away as he did so.

It soared across the room momentarily out of control before it righted itself and made an indignant huff before once again beginning to charge its weapon. Just as it did so the grenade detonated send the monitor flying off into the far wall where it then sunk to the floor, its eye flickering until finally, it went out.

With imperfect timing Carter, Kat and Prone to Drift entered to find Steven still on the floor and Jun inspecting the wrecked casing of the monitor. "What happened?" Carter asked angrily, seeing the scorch marks on the floor and damaged monitor and incorrectly putting two and two together. "Relax boss man, that AI came out of nowhere and started ranting at us about being here after it had already tried to fry me. Luckily Jun managed to get a grenade wedged onto it before it got one of us." Steven explained, climbing up off the floor as his shields began to recharge with a flicker.

"He's telling the truth Carter", Jun offered, "it came out of nowhere and attacked us without warning."

"Fine, what was the console you mentioned?" he asked, then following Jun as he lead them over. Once they were all stood around it Carter turned to the engineer, "What is it?"

"The sphere is a Cryptum, a place high ranking Forerunner warrior servants could go to seek enlightenment in times of personal crisis. Do you wish the one within to be released?" Prone to Drift replied.

Carter shifted for on his feet for a moment, thinking, "What would that entail?" he asked it reply.

"I cannot be sure which individual is stored within the Cryptum, my makers wisely limited my knowledge of Forerunner installations outside of my own in order to protect against the Flood, but the individual inside will be one of high rank to be allowed to enter such a state, likely one of the mighty Prometheans." the engineer replied, unhelpfully.

"Carter, think about it, the Forerunners made us their heirs, they must have been on the side of humanity so think about what he could do for humanity if we bring him back!" Kat said, appealing to the patriot within him.

"Fine, we'll awaken him but keep your weapons trained on him, god knows what state he'll be in after 100,000 years in a box." Carter replied.

"One of you must place your hands on the console to begin the process."

Carter stepped forwards and slung his rifle, then raised both hands and pressed them down firmly on the console pad. There was an instant response. There was an orange burst from the sphere which knocked the whole team to the ground. By the time they looked up again the sphere had begun to open, its lower sections sliding back like the protective shroud of a flower.

Slowly a small platform descended from the Cryptum, on it a small object lay. It was not until it began to move towards the Spartans that they realised what they were looking at, the physical remains of what could well be the last of the Forerunners.

**Author's Note: Well, there we go, another chapter. Sorry it took so long but I've only just emerged from exam season so I've been rather bogged down. Another big development for the story but the question remains, who is the Forerunner. As ever please read and review and I always value your opinions on the direction of this story.**


	33. Chapter 33

**Timeless: Forerunner Shield World**

**Approximately 100,000 Years Ago:**

The Iso-Didact walked slowly down the passageway thinking deeply to himself. With the reseeding of life in the galaxy complete there was much uncertainty amongst the remaining Forerunners over what they should do as a species. Some of the few who had survived the firing of the Halo array had decided to take their own lives rather than live with the guilt of what their people had done. He himself had long since known what he must do, he would do as his wife had wished.

His place was now to provide humanity with the help they needed to attain the Mantle when they were ready. However, with this eventuality being potential thousands of years away and with little left for him to do he had decided to do as his original had and enter a Cryptum.

This was where he was going now. He walked slowly down the descending passage Chant-to-Green, the new Lifeshaper, walked with him. "My Lifeworkers and I have decided that we must remain behind to ensure nothing unforeseen happens."

"You are making a great sacrifice, all life owes you and your rate a great debt Lifeshaper." this Iso-Didact replied, the pain of using the name Lifeshaper was great.

"Has there been word from Erde-Tyrene?" she asked, carefully choosing her words so as not to upset the Promethean.

"No, my wife is dead", he replied, "there is no way she could have survived the activation of the array, I can but hope she completed what she set out to do there."

The two finally emerged from the long path into the large chamber that had been prepared for the Didact's Cryptum, the platform he was to lie on hovering just before the large pit his Cryptum itself hovered over. As they neared this a Monitor, Destructive Ember, descended from above and formed seats for the two Forerunners from hard light.

Chant-to-Green Produced a small bottle of _inchukoa_ and handed it to the Didact. Opened the bottle and drank until it was dry. "What will you do once life is secured?" he asked.

The Lifeshaper thought for a moment, "We are not Warriors, the Cryptum is not an option, we may chose to leave this galaxy and begin anew."

The Didact nodded understandingly, "Perhaps that is for the best, I fear Forerunners have outstayed their welcome in this galaxy." He turned to the Monitor, "Ember, I task you with defending this place from all who should not enter until the Reclaimers arrive."

"Of course Didact, this place shall be secure while you slumber." the Monitor summoned the Cryptum's platform closer and the Didact rose stiffly from his chair, a thick sheen of water covering his skin as the _inchukoa _drove the water from his body. He lay down on the platform and blinked the liquid from his eyes, "Perhaps someday we may be forgiven for our crimes, but that is for our heirs to decide. Goodbye, Chant-to-Green, guide the last of the Forerunners to safety, they no longer need Warriors."

Slowly his eyes closed and in his last conscious moments he felt the platform move up and inside the Cryptum's protective field and by the time the millennial seal was closed he had entered timeless sleep.

…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…

The whole of Noble looked on in wonder as the remnants of the Forerunner drifted past on their platform and out through the entrance they had come through. They were stunned still for a good while and they had to run to catch up with it and the engineer which had followed it.

By the time they caught up the platform was just about to exit the structure and as it did so, to their surprise, it simply dropped downwards over the cliffs and towards the ocean below. The four Spartans looked down over the edge just in time to see it disappear beneath the waves. They looked to engineer for answers, "I believe these seas contain the restorative electrolytes, nutrients and other substances necessary to revive this Forerunner." Prone explained.

It wasn't long before the platform rose up once more, rotating as it did to drive the water from its surface. When it came level with them it stopped rotating, the now hunched form of the Forerunner facing away from them. Slowly, it rose to its feet and stretched its shoulders, reveal the massive arm span and musculature of the Forerunner. Seemingly out of nowhere armoured plates began to slide across the surface of the Forerunner's body until it was coated from head to toe armour, orange line glowing around it.

Finally, it turned around.

Steven did not know what he had expected the Forerunner to look like but what he saw before him held him in awe. He stood at over three metres tall with a wide, flat face. The skin was grey with eyes of a darker shade, the hair topping his head was sparse and the individual hairs far thicker than a human's and a pale bluish white in colour. Finally, it spoke.

"Welcome Reclaimers, it is good to see your species so far progressed since I last saw you although I had expected more given the time you have had. Still, we shall soon propel you along."

His voice was rich, wise and deep and all of them found themselves captivated by the sound. Kat was the first to break the silence, "Wait, who are you?" she asked.

"I was once a Forerunner Manipular, Bornstellar Makes Eternal Lasting, but that was long ago. Now I am the Didact, once commander of Forerunner Military Forces and Guardian of the Ecumene for over twelve thousand years, now it is my duty to guide humanity along the path to the Mantle."

Steven stopped and did a double take yet again, this was not just any Forerunner, but the leader of their military, and he had been expecting them.

Just as he was about to ask what exactly the Didact meant by his offer of guidance he was cut off as a flash spread across the sky.

…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…

Moro waited impatiently as the engineer drifted between the Forerunner consoles trying to work out where the humans had escaped to. After several minutes of its movements becoming increasingly more rapid and adept it drifted over to him and handed him a small data pad. On it were a few lines of text.

_This is a Forerunner translocation system but moving the humans through its already damaged systems has crippled it making it impossible for us to use it to follow them._

Moro was about to curse and strike the engineer when it waved a tentacle across the screen and more text appeared.

_However, I have been able to extract coordinates from the system for the location the system transported to._

He almost jumped for joy and seeing those words and his glee must have been apparent as one of his subordinates approached him, "Arbiter, what brings you such joy when our foes have escaped."

He shoved the smaller elite aside, "We shall return to the ship immediately for the Forerunner have granted us the power to follow the demons to wherever they have hidden."

The ground force he had with him followed him out of the chamber and back to the entrance they had entered through where the Spirit dropship was waiting for them with its pilot. "Take us up." Moro ordered once all were aboard, in a hurry to pursue his foe before they could get away from him.

…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…

Serin Osman observed the view screen, her face a picture of concern. It had been almost two hours since Noble Team's FOF tags had vanished from the surface of Onyx and she had observed quietly as a dropship had returned to the Covenant ship in orbit and then gone back to the surface.

She was certain Noble were not simply dead because rather then showing them as such their tags had simply disappeared. "BB, track the Covenant's trajectory, that's where Noble are likely to be so we're following."

"Certainly Captain, I've calculated their trajectory and it does not lead to any known UNSC or Covenant system so I would estimate they are following Noble to an unknown system."

Osman gripped the edge of her chair and braced herself for the jump, when she saw the Covenant ship open up a portal into the other dimension and slip through she gritted her teeth and felt the familiar gut churning lurch as they followed the Covenant into the abyss.

Osman opened her eyes and looked out the viewport into slipspace, "Captain, we should be able significantly reduce our journey time by following in the slipspace wake of the Covenant ship but without knowing where we are going I can't estimate an arrival time.

"BB, I'm going to draft a report to Admiral Parangosky in my quarters, let me know the second we arrive." Osman ordered and with that retreated to her office to begin her report on the so far rather disastrous mission.

…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…

Steven looked up in horror to see the curved prow of a Covenant corvette appearing from a slipspace rupture in the skies above. The Didact looked up also, his gaze unconcerned and vaguely interested.

"Covenant ship, get to cover Noble!" Carter warned, already beginning to retreat into the shelter of structure they had found the Didact in.

"Why do you fear this arrival?" the Didact asked, his deep voice laced with concern and confusion.

"The Covenant are an alien conglomerate hell bent on destroying humanity and so far they're doing a damn good job." Steven explained.

Immediately the Didact's face contorted in anger, "They shall pay for the hubris!" he growled. With a wave of his hand the Cryptum he had been release from appeared with a flash before him and he once more entered into it on his platform. The sphere immediately responded and the orange glow intensified before it hurtled off on an intercept course towards the Covenant ship.

…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…

The Didact could barely contain his rage at the ones who dared to seek the destruction of his heirs but he forced himself to maintain control and opened a comm link to the ship before him. A 3D representation of a four jawed face appeared before him and it jerked back in surprise at the sight of him. "Who are you to threaten these Reclaimers?" he demanded, his voice ominous.

"I am Moro 'Valamee, Arbiter of the Covenant, the destruction of these demons is the will of the gods, and we? We are their instruments." the alien face responded, its voice twisted with hatred.

The connection was immediately cut and the Didact looked to the view screen of what was happening outside the Cryptum, he saw several points of light begin to glow purple along the length of the Covenant ship and primitive plasma torpedoes launched from it towards him. They were of little concern to him as they were absorbed by his Cryptum's shields.

While the Cryptum possessed no offensive weapons the Didact had already formulated a plan for how to deal with these Covenant. Boosting his speed to maximum he made a beeline for the ship and slammed into the side of it, knocking it off course and sent it careering away from the kinetic force of the impact.

The Didact tightened his lips slightly, almost but not quite allowing himself a small rictus. Looping away from the now fleeing ship and back towards the humans.

There was much he had to discuss with them.

**Author's Note: Another chapter done, any references to information found in the Forerunner Saga can be supplemented with googling. As ever please read and review and I value your opinion on the direction of this story. **


	34. Chapter 34

**Tide: June 28th 2545**

**Location: Unknown Forerunner Installation**

The Didact's Cryptum glided back down to the top of the cliffs where Noble had gathered while the Didact had been chasing off the Covenant. All four of them were in awe of what they had seen lately and were still trying to understand from the Didact how he had survived since the firing of the Halos when _Razor's Edge_ appeared in the skies above them.

Osman's voice came in over the radio, "This is Osman, Noble care to explain why there's a Covenant ship now making best speed away from this planet?"

"Might be easier to show you ma'am." Carter said over the radio. This elicited an irritated huff from Osman but she brought the Prowler down and landed it on the nearest large area of open land just under a mile away.

Deciding not to appear too aggressive the Didact left his Cryptum where it was by the cliffs and walked with Noble back inland, slowing his pace significantly to accommodate for their much shorter legs. As they walked the Didact approached Steven, "You are not of this world are you, human?"

Steven was stunned for a moment and didn't respond, how could the Didact possibly know his origins. "My armour's sensors detected a large quantity of certain subatomic particles coating your body, I know that these particular types of particles are attracted by use of the translocation crystals late on during the war with the Flood."

"You're right Didact, I came here many years ago from my universe, there everything here is based on a set of video games and books, including you." Steven explained.

There was a distinct look of surprise on the Didact's face at this discovery, "I can prove it", Steven replied, "one hundred thousand years ago, after you unearthed the original Didact's Cryptum on Earth you and he went on an adventure to Charum Hakkor, where you discovered the Primordial had been released from its timelock and…"

"Enough!" the Didact commanded. Steven immediately fell silent, "It is not right for you to speak of such things. You have proven your point."

There was an awkward silence between the two as they continued to walk, "Since your knowledge of the world is far greater than my own, tell me why this Covenant seek the destruction of your species."

Taking a deep breath Steven began the sorry tale of how the Covenant had found a fragment of Mendicant Bias aboard the Forerunner Dreadnought, how the Covenant had long worshipped the Forerunners and viewed their disappearance as proof of their transcendence, how they wished to follow their gods on their Great Journey and how following the realization that the humans were the heirs to the Forerunners and therefore proof the Forerunners were not gods the Prophets had ordered the destruction of humanity in the name of the gods.

Throughout all of this Steven could see the Didact's anger slowly building as he heard more and more of the terrible acts which had been wrought in the name of his people. When Steven had finally finished the Didact looked both furious and sad, as well as some other, unreadable and likely inhuman emotion. "I shall speak with your leaders and offer my assistance in this war, the Covenant deserve no mercy for their crimes and I shall do all I can to supplement your technology using the engineering skills of the large number of huragok I shall obtain from our installations."

By this time they had arrived at the Prowler and Osman was waiting for them outside. When she saw the Didact with them her jaw dropped, she didn't even raise her weapon which spoke volumes with her Spartan training.

Carter stepped forward, "Captain Osman, this is the Didact, Didact this is Captain Osman." He stepped back again to let the two converse.

The Didact opened, "Captain Osman, as you now know I am the Didact, possibly the last of the Forerunners and with the knowledge I have gleaned from your warriors I would like to offer my assistance in your war against these meddlers."

"Captain, if it helps I can provide some context as to who this guy is." Steven offered. Osman nodded slightly and the group retreated into the interior of the Prowler, forcing the Didact the stoop to fit inside. Steven and Osman made a beeline for her office and they spent the next several hours discussing the events surrounding the Didact before and after his entry into his Cryptum. When they had finally finished Osman sat back in her chair and rubbed her eyes, "I think we need to get this guy back to Parangosky, now. BB, make a note of these coordinates and then plot a course for Reach for the Admiral to meet us there."

"Yes, Captain, I'll drop her a message." BB replied, his avatar blinking out as he went on his electronic way. Together Steven and Osman left the cabin to join the rest of Noble who were sat in serious discussion in the bunk room.

As they entered Carter turned around to Osman, "Captain, I didn't mention this before with all the excitement but Emile was separated from us when we came here, Prone to Drift has managed to locate him but I need your clearance to pick him up."

Osman put her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow, "I was wondering when you'd get around to explaining that to me, BB detected his IFF as soon as we arrived in system, what about Maria?" Noble shifted uncomfortably, "I'm sorry", Osman continued, "and I think I understand why Emile got separated, but don't worry I won't say a word."

Osman turned and left the room heading for the bridge, when she arrived she took her seat in the command chair, "BB, take us to Spartan 239's position for extraction, prepare a dose of tranquilizers should they be necessary."

She sat back to reflect on recent events as the ship rose up and began the surprisingly long to journey to where Emile had run off to. This whole mission had begun to spiral rapidly out of control and she could hardly believe she had a real live Forerunner aboard her vessel who was planning to help humanity in their war against the Covenant.

By the time they arrived at Emile's position she could hardly contain her excitement at the technological possibilities but she forced herself to focus on the task at hand.

As the ship settled down less than a mile from his position she opened a channel on the comm, "Noble, move out and locate Emile, you will be equipped with tranquilizer darts capable of piercing his armour if he refuses to come willingly, it's for his own sake, we can't leave him here."

Carter lead the team as they strode out onto the surface leaving Osman and the Didact aboard the Prowler. It was only as they neared the supposed position of Emile's IFF they realised a rather large problem. Set up around the area were a series of Covenant barricades manned by an array of grunts and jackals along with three elites.

Seeing this challenge they moved into their standard combat position, Jun providing overing fire while Carter and Kat engaged the enemy and mid-range while Steven went in for the tidy up kills.

Several grunts charged ahead, waving their plasma pistols at the Spartans and discharging their weapons. They were rapidly torn apart by a hail of bullets from Carter and Kat.

Meanwhile Steven had drawn his knife and pistol and was beginning to deal with the nearest elite. He quickly strode towards it unleashing a spray of rounds from his pistol, each shot hammering the energy shield but not quite enough to collapse it. Recognizing his rapidly worsening position he barreled forwards and slammed into the alien, finally collapsing the shields. With a grunt the elite grabbed his shoulders and swung him over so that the elite sat over him and it pulled out its plasma dagger. However, just as it brought the dagger down Steven slammed his knife into the rear of the elite's skull piercing through and into its brain.

The body slumped and threw it off with a quick shove. Jumping to his feet Steven looked up to see the towering form of another elite stood over him, energy sword raised. However, it was to slow to strike as a high velocity sniper round tore across the battlefield and blew its head off in a a spatter of gore.

Nodding in Jun's direction he leapt back into the fray, unslinging his rifle and unleashing a spray of lead into the nearest group of grunts and jackals. With this group felled he looked around and saw that no enemies remained. He sighed slightly and reslung his rifle.

He listened in over the comm as Carter called out to Emile. When there was no reply he began walking towards what was supposed to be his location.

It was only when he arrived that he discovered why Emile had not been responding, lying on the ground before him was the source of the signal, Emile's helmet.

**Author's Note: This story is really starting to flow now, apologies if the chapters aren't as long as they usually are but I'm trying to churn them out a little shorter and more often. Thanks for all your thoughts and support on this story so far and as ever please read and review this story and my others.**


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